Best & Worst Of The 2017 Box Office

Worst: The R-rated comedy is on life support
Were audiences not in the mood to laugh this year because of the seemingly daily political upheaval? (Note: the two largest box office markets, Southern California and New York did not vote for Trump.) Has the studio R-rated comedy simply become too predictable and formulaic?  Were there just a bunch of bad R-rated comedies released this year?  The answer to all those questions is likely “yes” to some degree. Outside of “Girl’s Trip” and “The Big Sick” (sorry, “Baby Driver” is an action comedy in our books), it was a dismal year for R-rated comedies. “Baywatch,” “Logan Lucky,” “Snatched,” “Rough Night,” “ChiPs,” and “Father Figures” were all significant disappointments relative to cost and it didn’t help that most were critical misfires as well.  Theater owners and studios will be looking at how Warner Bros.’ “Game Night” and Universal’s “Blockers” perform in 2018 to see if it’s truly a long-term trend or not.

Worst: “Alien Covenant” maybe kills the “Alien” franchise
The “Alien” series is a weird one. Iconic and well-celebrated, with two pop culture masterpieces under its belt, 20^th Century Fox’s “Alien” franchise has never made gangbusters money thanks to its R-rating. That started to change with Ridley Scott’s return to the series with “Prometheus” which made $403.4 million worldwide in 2012 (still the highest grossing “Alien” movie of all time though adjusted for inflation, “Alien” and “Aliens” are both higher domestically). But even “Prometheus” wasn’t an outright smash. Made for $130 million, the film fell short of that figure domestically but earned the bulk of its money (nearly 69%) overseas. While Scott did the math and wisely took his budget down (only $97 million this time), the sequel, “Alien: Covenant” couldn’t even crack $75 million domestically. International audiences showed up in about half the full force of “Prometheus.” It’s as if audiences were curious to see what Scott was cooking up with his return, but quickly lost interest which might not be a surprise since the movies now seem more interested in artificial intelligence than they do xenomorphs. The worry for audiences that hold this franchise dear should be this: “Alien Vs. Predator” is still the third highest grossing film in the series, was way cheaper to make, and didn’t incur the cost of well-paid stars. Horror franchises start out well and then, well… they become “Friday The 13^th,” “The Exorcist,” “Halloween,” “ A Nightmare Before Elm Street,” etc. they wear out their welcome fast, producing far more inferior sequels than classic pictures. Don’t be surprised if Fox grows tired of Scott’s chin-scratching approach to “Alien” and moves on. Fans can cling to this hope: maybe now that Disney owns Fox, we might be able to see Neil Blomkamp’s “Alien 5” one day.

Worst: Indies that should have broken out and didn’t
It happens every year, but 2017 featured a number of indies that seemed like sure bet arthouse and potentially mainstream crossover hits that simply didn’t play. Inexplicably, Neon’s “Ingrid Goes West” took in just $3 million in the U.S. despite commercially friendly video spots and a smart Instagram marketing campaign right out of A24‘s playbook. Our take is the August release plan was a mistake and an April, May or June release would have generated more buzz. Fox Searchlight’s “Patti Cake$” was a crowd pleaser at Sundance but took in just $1.4 million worldwide. It probably felt too familiar to the art house crowd and, yeah, it was another August limited release. A24’s “Good Time” earned massive acclaim out of Cannes but grossed just $2 million after expanding to 721 theaters. Oh right, another August limited release (spotting a trend for younger-skewing art house films?). Those weren’t the only disappointments, however. A24’s “The Florida Project” is one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, but has taken in just $5 million* domestic since October. A Best Picture nomination could help its cause, but something went wrong there. International players such as “The Square” ($1.1 million*), “Lady Macbeth” ($1.1 million), “God’s Own Country” ($296,000) and “BPM” (a disastrous $92,000) should all have made more based on their critical acclaim alone. Moreover, even tepidly reviewed indies with notable studio actors such as “Last Flag Flying” ($965,000) and “Breathe” ($490,000) were gigantic misfires.

Best: “Thor: Ragnarok” takes it to another level for the Thunder God
It’s incredibly rare for the third entry in a franchise to make more money than its predecessors, but Marvel Studios has shown with “Iron Man” and “Captain America” it knows how to buck that trend. With “Thor: Ragnarok” Marvel adding The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), a legendary Oscar winner as its villain (Cate Blanchett), an iconic actor as another villain (Jeff Goldblum) and an up and coming superstar (Tessa Thompson) along with favorites Chris Hemsworth, Idris Elba and Tom Hiddleston. Throw in a unique filmmaker who pretty much got to make the movie he wanted to make (Taika Waititi) and you have all the ingredients for an $846 million* global hit. That’s a very nice bump from 2013’s “Thor: The Dark World” which earned $644.5 million worldwide.