Big hit movies made Warner Bros. You see red.
The company's shares fell after Friday's quarterly earnings report fell short of expectations, according to the New York Post.
With two recent releases that have proven to be box office disappointments, perhaps the company — and Hollywood in general — should ask itself why Americans aren't interested in seeing its products.
According to the newspaper, the earnings report showed that Warner Bros. It generated $10.28 billion in the fourth quarter, lower than analysts' expectations of $10.35 billion.
The Washington Post reported that the report led to “shares of the media giant falling 10%.”
Its shares fell 16 cents per share, according to the newspaper, more than double analysts' average estimate of 7 cents.
What is behind the financial bleeding?
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the sequel to 2018's Aquaman, was clearly aimed at moviegoers eager to spend big bucks to be preached about climate change.
It brought her a respectable $433 million, according to the newspaper. But the film's budget was $215 million, which, according to Hollywood-focused site Screen Rant, means it needs to make more than $400 million to break even.
So, it may be It made its money back, which is a very disappointing result for a sequel to a film that brought in over a billion dollars.
Warner Bros. released Also a musical version of “The Color Purple” with a budget of about $100 million, according to The Post; The film grossed only $68 million.
According to Screen Rant, it needed to make more than $200 million to break even. By that standard, it bombed by anyone's definition.
They were clearly different kinds of movies — not only was “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” selling its choppy premise about climate change, it was also burdened by the presence of actress Amber Heard, who made public accusations about her treatment on set. , plus her messy legal battle with actor and ex-husband Johnny Depp, may have finally disproved the old Hollywood adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity.
Meanwhile, the musical version of “The Color Purple” had the problem of no one understanding why the world was clamoring for a musical version of a film first made in 1985.
The film won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for Whoopi Goldberg, and received a slew of Oscar nominations ranging from Best Picture to Best Score – all without being a musical.
In other words, there was no reason to do it again, except for the fact that the film is about a black woman growing up in the first half of the 20th century, who has experienced trauma and triumph throughout her life. Warner Bros. clearly thought it would ride the guilt-ridden white remorse of post-George Floyd America to the riches of cinema.
This didn't work out well.
It probably doesn't help the remake's case that the author of the 1983 novel The Color Purple who provided the material for the film was Alice Walker, a woman whose hatred of the State of Israel was so intense that she rejected it. allowing a Hebrew translation of the book, as The Times of Israel reported in 2012. The film was officially released on Christmas Day, more than two months after the October 7 massacre in Israel by the terrorist group Hamas, which brought new attention to Jewish hatred of Jews. The American left.
Take a look at the official trailer below. It's not really hard to see why the movie didn't work.
There's no denying that Warner Bros. She knows how to exploit modern anxiety in order to make profits in films. This is the studio that distributed “Barbie” — a box office monster that grossed more than $1.3 billion, according to Variety.
(This is a success by all accounts, even with all the whining about the alleged Oscar snub.)
But there are limits to everything, and Hollywood seems to have reached them.
Aside from the rare blockbuster movie (like “Barbie”), news from movies has been largely dismal in recent years, mainly because Hollywood has been in such a state of hypervigilance that it's putting Americans to sleep — or turning them off completely.
The vast majority of Americans turn to movies for a few hours of entertainment — so as not to have their heads rattled, MSNBC-style, about climate change, the endlessly expanding rights of gays, lesbians, and transgender people, the wrongs the country is doing to black people, etc., etc. Infinity.
(Didn't anyone in Hollywood notice how successful this little movie called “Top Gun: Maverick” was not long ago?)
Americans are clearly fed up with a lot of what Hollywood is up to selling, but the men and women in the studio's executive suites refuse to learn their lesson.
Sometimes, it seems like Hollywood may never wake up from the nightmare that has stifled its creativity for what seems like the entire 21st century so far, but hope must spring eternal.
Seeing red on balance sheets long enough would convince even the most vigilant companies to see the light.
This article originally appeared in The Western Journal.
