Focus Features
- Some movies that flopped in theaters this year deserve a watch, from “Babylon” to “The Northman.”
- They suggest that even good original movies for adults don’t attract audiences in droves anymore.
- Here’s why some box-office stinkers are worth your time, and where to watch them.
Original movies made for adults are struggling to attract large audiences in theaters, a trend exasperated by the pandemic.
That means some box office flops from this year are actually great movies, like Oscar contenders “Tár,” which stars Cate Blanchett, and Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.”
“Babylon,” which opened over the weekend, made just under $5 million over the four-day holiday, a dreadful number for a movie that cost nearly $80 million to make.
I loved all three of these movies, as well as others that didn’t connect with moviegoers. Fortunately, most are online to rent or stream.
Below are eight movies worth watching that flopped at the box office, and where to watch them.
Box-office and budget figures are from IMDb Pro.
Universal Pictures
US box office total: $22.3 million
Global box office: $51.8 million
Production budget: $40 million
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 69%
How to watch: Streaming on Prime Video
“Ambulance” is an adrenaline rush of a movie, and Michael Bay’s best in years. The filmmaker spent the last decade making “Transformers” movies that got worse and worse, and then the dreadful Netflix movie “6 Underground.” He returned to form with this action-heist movie that features an unhinged Jake Gyllenhaal performance.
Paramount
US box office total (so far): $4.8 million
Global box office (so far): $4.8 million
Production budget: $78 million
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 54%
How to watch: Still in theaters
“Babylon” has divided critics, with most condemning its bloated runtime. Still, I was completely immersed in this years-spanning tale of various characters trying to make it in Hollywood in the late 1920s, as the industry is transitioning from silent films to talkies.
The main players are Brad Pitt as a veteran of the silent era and Margot Robbie as a newcomer to Hollywood. The film is both a depiction of the magic of cinema and a damning portrayal of the industry behind it. It’s also one of the most outrageous movies I’ve ever seen and is worth watching if you’re at all curious.
NEON.
US box office total: $2.4 million
Global box office: $4.5 million
Production budget: $35 million
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 80%
How to watch: Streaming on Hulu
“Crimes of the Future,” a film in which humans have evolved to not feel pain and thus do all sorts of crazy things to their bodies, is admittedly a tough movie to recommend. It’s not for the faint of heart, but anyone who liked Cronenberg’s early body-horror works like “The Fly” and “Videodrome” shouldn’t miss it.
Universal
US box office total (so far): $10.3 million
Global box office (so far): $10.5 million
Production budget: $40 million
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 91%
How to watch: The film is still in a limited number of theaters and also available to rent on video-on-demand platforms.
If you want to know how Steven Spielberg’s early life influenced such films as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T.,” “The Fabelmans” will give you some idea. But the movie isn’t so much about Spielberg’s filmmaking, or even cinema in general, as it is a family drama seen through the eyes of a young man who loves movies.
Aidan Monaghan / © 2022 Focus Features, LLC
US box office total: $34.2 million
Global box office: $69.6 million
Production budget: $60 million
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 89%
How to watch: Streaming on Prime Video
“The Northman” might make some viewers squirm, but it’s a visually stunning spectacle with intense and commanding performances from Alexander Skarsgård and Nicole Kidman. This is director Robert Eggers’ biggest movie yet, after his smaller budgeted films “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse,” and he didn’t let the money go to waste.
Universal
US box office total: $5.8 million
Global box office: $11 million
Production budget: $32 million
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 87%
How to watch: Available to rent on video-on-demand platforms
“She Said” isn’t really interested in sensationalizing journalism to captivate an audience. Instead, it’s more interested in how utterly unglamorous it can be. The most “thrilling” part of the movie is a bunch of people standing around a computer. Even though that makes for a slowburn movie, I respect the depiction.
At the film’s center are journalists who played a key role in bringing down former Hollywood producer and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, played with effectiveness by Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan.
Focus Features
US box office total: $5.5 million
Global box office: $5.5 million
Production budget: $35 million
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 90%
How to watch: Available to rent on video-on-demand platforms
“Tár” has stuck with me long after I saw it, both because of Cate Blanchett’s incredible performance and for its surprisingly haunting tone. Blanchett plays a music composer and conductor whose life and career begin to unravel. It would be easy to describe it as a “cancel-culture” movie, but what writer and director Todd Field made is far more complicated and rich.
Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate
US box office total: $20.3 million
Global box office: $29.1 million
Production budget: $30 million
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 87%
How to watch: Streaming on Starz
Nicolas Cage stars in his most meta movie yet, in which he plays a version of himself who meets a super fan and is roped into a conspiracy. If you’re at all a fan of Cage, this is a can’t-miss movie with fun call backs to his previous work.
