To say that Amsterdam is a box office dud is an understatement. The 1930s period piece by David O. Russell stands to lose as much as $100 million dollars, making it a truly historic flop.
While Disney and New Regency took a risk with producing a movie with such a big budget, expectations for the quirky dramedy were still high. It has a proven big name director (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) with award appeal and a star-studded ensemble cast of Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Taylor Swift, and John David Washington (to name a few). According to The Hollywood Reporter, it was expected to gross somewhere between $12M and $15M over its opening weekend. It raised only $6.4 million. The sheer amount of money lost opens a lot of questions about the future of theatrical releases.
The movie had a mammoth budget of $80 million. This is in part due to costly delays caused by moving location. The film was originally planned to be shot in Boston but most of the cast did not want to relocate. Production then moved to Los Angeles, adding tens of millions of dollars. Shooting was delayed again with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March of 2020. Even with many actors taking pay cuts in order to work with Russell the film ended up costing much more than its original budget of $50 million. Another $70M was spent on promotion.
It was not only a commercial disaster but a critical one as well. It has a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 33 percent. For upscale movies, having a good critics score is crucial to box office success.
The film reflects poorly on Russell’s image as an award season contender. The director was already in hot waters after accusations of groping his niece. He has was also widely criticized for his verbal attacks on Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees and relentless abuse of Amy Adams during the filming of American Hustle.
The meager return also suggests some larger box office trends. The film was marketed to older adults who have been much slower to return to theaters compared to younger generations. This is reflected in last weekends box office lists where Smile (in its second weekend) and Lyle, Lyle. Crocodile – both marketed to Gen Zs – finished ahead of Amsterdam. With people 35+ largely transitioning to streaming, the theatrical release of upscale features is in peril.
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