The summer movie release schedule is always filled with big blockbusters, superhero sagas and beautiful independent films to balance it out. But some of these are somewhat risky for the studios — scroll through to see what films TheWrap sees as gambles this season.
“UglyDolls” (May 3)
“UglyDolls” is marketing itself as an underdog story, but the problem is that it’s not based on a big enough toy brand to present itself as an inspirational movie. While it does have big names attached, like Nick Jonas, Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monae, Pitbull and Blake Shelton, UglyDolls are no Pokemon or Lego or Beanie Babies — so will the brand itself be strong enough to lure people to the box office? The film’s budget was $45 million.
“Detective Pikachu” (May 10)
Pokemon is a massive global brand. Since its beginnings in 1996, Pokemon has been adapted into an animated TV series, a number of animated films, a trading card game and even a short-lived theme park. Now, The Pokemon Company, in partnership with Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment, is finally bringing the world of Pokemon to life on the big screen in a heavily CGI’d live action adventure comedy.
“Detective Pikachu,” however, is based on a rather weird offshoot of the wildly popular original game. That game was released worldwide in 2018 and was the top-selling game for the Nintendo 3DS the month it came out. It was also nominated for Nintendo’s game of the year. Live-action feature film adaptations of video games, however, have historically under- performed at the box office. Just look at the domestic grosses for films such as “Warcraft,” “Prince of Persia” and “Assassin’s Creed,” just to name a few.
“A Dog’s Journey” (May 17)
The first film in the franchise, “A Dog’s Purpose,” had a solid box office debut in 2017 although it was plagued with controversy when a video of a German Shepherd being forced into rushing water was leaked. It made $205 million worldwide on a budget of $22 million. So a sequel sounds almost like a sure thing — but another film with a very similar title and purpose, titled “A Dog’s Way Home,” just debuted three months ago and made significantly less money with just $75 million. Could we be over-saturated with dog movies?
“Aladdin” (May 24)
A live-action adaptation of “Aladdin” seems like a sure-fire thing, but there are a couple factors that make this particular Disney film a gamble. First, it is coming out shortly after “Dumbo” didn’t quite take off at the box office. Secondly, it’s coming out two months before the highly anticipated “Lion King,” so are we possibly seeing an overload of Disney’s live-action adaptations? Additionally, some people weren’t impressed when the first trailer and first images came out, criticizing Will Smith’s Genie and how handsome the classic villain Jafar looked. Fans have since calmed down after more footage was released. But essentially, it seems like Disney is competing against itself with all of these remakes of its classic IP.
“Dark Phoenix” (June 7)
What more needs to be said about “Dark Phoenix” other than Disney has no plans to incorporate Fox’s X-Men films into the MCU? Fox’s stewardship of certain Marvel properties has been interesting, chock full of fits and starts.
With the exception of “Logan,” which bucked traditional superhero film expectations, and the “Deadpool” films, which aren’t exactly connected, Fox’s “X-Men” franchise has lost some of its luster in recent years. The latest film, “X-Men: Apocalypse,” grossed $155.4 million domestically at the box office on a $178 million production budget, according to Box Office Mojo. And the film was slapped with a 47% rating on critics review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. On one hand, Fox is dealing with a film that may suffer from overkill in a franchise that hasn’t excited audiences recently. On the other hand, the film’s future place in the franchise is in a precarious place now that Disney is the new corporate overseer.
“Men in Black: International” (June 14)
Seven years after the last installment in a franchise that had for sure seen better days, Sony Pictures is reviving the “Men in Black” franchise, releasing “Men in Black: International” this summer. “Men in Black” has seen diminishing domestic returns since helping to cement Will Smith as a box office heavyweight in 1997. The first film grossed $250.7 million at the domestic box office, followed by $190.4 million for “Men in Black II” and $179.0 million for “MIB 3.”
“Men in Black: International,” however, doesn’t even star Will Smith. Sony has traded in Mr. July for Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. The two did previously star together in Marvel’s “Thor: Ragnarok,” which grossed $315.1 million at the domestic box office. That film also garnered critical praise, so Sony will for sure be banking on the team-up generating similar — even if not Marvel-sized — results.
“Child’s Play” (June 21)
What’s old is new again and that’s maybe never more apparent than in Hollywood. MGM’s Orion Pictures is dipping into the pool of 1980s nostalgia to reboot the cult horror classic “Child’s Play,” which grossed $44.2 million worldwide at the box office on a $9 million production budget in 1988.
Revisiting popular stories and brands from the ’80s has been a boon for Hollywood in recent years, but there are risks tied to attempting to reboot a decades-old franchise: Is the audience for it still there? Have tastes changed? Of the five films in the Chucky franchise — they’re not all even called “Child’s Play” — the first film had the highest domestic box office gross and just barely trailed the worldwide gross of 1998’s “Bride of Chucky,” which pulled in $50.7 million.
Luckily horror films are typically made on shoestring budgets. “Child’s Play,” which stars Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry and Mark Hamill (the latter as the voice of Chucky), was directed by Lars Klevberg. Klevberg’s last film, “Polaroid,” had been tangled up in The Weinstein Co. and was pushed from its release date, now releasing overseas.
“Playmobil” (August 7)
The same argument we made about “UglyDolls” could be made for “Playmobil.” It has big names attached, like Daniel Radcliffe, Jim Gaffigan, Meghan Trainor, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Adam Lambert, but the question remains as to whether the brand itself is strong enough to warrant a feature film. Not only was the movie supposed to be released at the end of 2017, but Playmobil isn’t a big household name in the United States, especially in comparison to its competitor, Lego. It’s almost like the German toy brand saw the success of the Lego movies and decided to follow suit.
“Artemis Fowl” (August 9)
A film adaptation of the young-adult book series has been in the works since 2001, and the film has bounced between different directors. Lawrence Guterman (“Son of the Mask”) was attached at one point, then it was reported that Jim Sheridan (“In the Name of the Father”) was interested. Finally, Disney announced in 2015 that Kenneth Branagh would oversee directing. While big names, such as Judi Dench and Josh Gad, are attached, Disney has proven to be somewhat fallible where films in, or circling, this genre — science fiction fantasy — are concerned.
Last year, Disney had two similar films struggle at the domestic box office. First, “A Wrinkle in Time,” touting a $100 million production budget, made just $100.5 million at the box office. Then “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” limped to $54.9 million, while carrying a production budget of $120 million, according to Box Office Mojo. And in 2016 “Alice Through the Looking Glass” earned just $77 million on a $170 million production budget.
The film is based on the first two books in the eight-book series, which began in 2001. The second book earned its way onto the New York Times Best Sellers list, and the last book in the series was published in 2012, but the IP has been sitting on the shelf now for 18 years.
“Blinded by the Light” (August 14)
“Blinded by the Light” made a huge splash at Sundance and has since scored a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Warner Bros. paid $15 million for it — a risky move given the film has no stars and Bruce Springsteen fans typically skew older. It’s also coming out two months after “Yesterday,” a movie based on music by The Beatles, and it’s wedged between big movies like “The Kitchen,” “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” and “Good Boys.” PLUS — huge festival buys don’t always pay out. See “Assassination Nation,” which was bought for $10 million but only made $2.5 million, for example.
