Although Star Wars: The Last Jedi speared past all the movies released this year to earn the highest opening weekend box office collections this year, there is no denying that 2017 was one of the worst years the industry has seen of late at the theatres.
There were several movies through the year that performed brilliantly at the box office. But as compared to hits, there were several big-budget movies that were predicted to perform great at the box office but failed to meet the expectations, making 2017 a dark year for the industry. The year saw numerous flops and underperforming sequels.
While the initial months of 2017 saw some good box office numbers thanks to Beauty and the Beast, Logan, Kong: Skull Island and Fast and Furious 8, Hollywood's woes began when King Arthur: Legend of the Sword bombed.
Yes, Scarlett Johansson's Ghost in the Shell got the industry talking as the movie flopped, but it was the disastrous King Arthur's box office collections that left everyone shocked.
The film, made with a whopping $175-million budget, opened to a shameful $14.3 million domestically and ended its run at $148.7 million worldwide, Box Office Mojo reveals.
That was when the domino effect began. Though Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 took charge and brought moviegoers back to the tickets counter, it could not stop the bad summer spell.
King Arthur's flop was followed by Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets ($225.2 million), Baywatch ($177.9 million), The Mummy ($409.1 million), and Transformers 5 ($605.4 million) in the summer alone. Film analysts had pinned hopes on the above-mentioned movies, hoping that they would revive the summer box office. But it was a dry season indeed.
Wonder Woman, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Dunkirk managed to keep the box office busy from time to time, but the dry spell did not end with the summer.
The Dark Tower, released on July 31, opened the gates to a brutal August. The Stephen King adaptation opened to a shocking $19 million domestic collection over four days and ended its run at $111.7 million worldwide.
There were several movies in between Dukirk and "It" that kept the box office occupied – like Annabelle: Creation and The Hitman's Bodyguard, but the ticket counters were mostly on a quieter side.
However, movies like Blade Runner 2049 and Geostorm pulled the sluggish Hollywood market down. The Ryan Gosling-starrer box office disaster came as a shock for many considering the movie received rave reviews.
The Blade Runner sequel's box office collections halted at $257.7 million worldwide with the domestic business not even surpassing $100 million. The domestic box office collections stood at $91.4 million.
As for Geostorm, it scraped past the $10-million mark on its opening weekend and collected $13.7 million in the domestic market. Overall, the film earned $33 million domestically and ended its worldwide box office run with $208 million.
All this while, Warner Bros was hoping to end the year with a bang as it was going all out with the promotions of Justice League. Following the success of Wonder Woman, DC fans and analysts thought that the movie would open big. However, the movie left everyone shocked.
The movie, which was expected to collect about $120+ million by the end of its opening weekend, couldn't even go past $100 million domestically and recorded a domestic box office collection of $93 million.
On one hand where Thor: Ragnarok became one of the best Marvel movies, Justice League faired as one of the worst-performing box office movies as it ended its run at $675 million, Box Office Guru notes.
