Box Office Breakdown: Tom Hanks Series Hints at Larger Market Shift

I love Tom Hanks.  You love Tom Hanks.  Everyone loves Tom Hanks.  And yet, I can't think of a single person who looks forward to his Robert Langdon films.  Creatively, they seem like a dead end.  How many times can we really watch Tom Hanks run around Europe following increasingly contrived literary clues, or suspend our belief for Tom Hanks' ridiculous hairdos (I mean really, just give Langdon curly hair already)? 

The continued existence of this series exemplifies an interesting change happening in the movie business at the moment, though, which is how increasingly unimportant the US market has become in the blockbuster filmmaking business.  Inferno only made $14.8 million this weekend domestically, but since its international release a couple weeks ago, it has already raked in over $130 million worldwide.  That's $50 million more than its production budget.  To give this change some context, if we go back a scant 16 years, in 2000, both Tom Hanks and Inferno director Ron Howard found themselves atop the domestic box-office with Cast Away and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, respectively.  Each of those films were huge successes, and each made more in the United States than in their foreign grosses.  In fact, the top ten highest grossing films of that year made 53% of their worldwide gross, on average, in the US.  Fast forward to 2006, when The Da Vinci Code came out and made 71% of its gross overseas, and the top ten's average US gross drops to 43%.  In 2015, a year when the US saw its biggest film of all time with The Force Awakens, it was 35%.

In the past, movies that made back only half their budget in America were deemed bombs and written off as huge losses for their studios.  Now, though, seeing gigantic budget movies ($150 million+) that completely whiff in the States, but kill it enough overseas that studios hold serious sequel talks is becoming almost normal (Pacific Rim already has a sequel in the works with John Boyega set to star despite making only $100 million dollars of its $190 million budget in the US, and I wouldn't be surprised if a smaller scale Warcraft sequel gains traction simply because of China).  

What this means is that we see more movies catering to the overseas audience.  More movies are being set in rapidly growing markets like Russia or China.  Enormous $200 million movies will have largely international casts and production teams (The Great Wall, 47 Ronin).  Those certainly aren't bad things, but one unfortunate side effect is that movie studios will begin to cater to some countries who rule over their imported media content with an eye toward censorship, like China.  Instead of making one version for the US, and one version for everyone else, most studios will likely bow to the power of state-sponsered censorship and make one homogenized piece of popcorn after another.  This is already happening and its why most blockbuster movies feel the same.

I believe that film is a powerful tool and increased access is certainly a great thing.  Art, even censored art, has a tendency to break through and affect change, democratizing the viewer's mind and projecting freedom past persecution.  Hopefully, like movies during the Hays code era, real film will eventually cut through the din and make a difference.  Although, not if they are all like Inferno.

A few other notes:

Madea continues her reign of terror at the top of the box-office.  Tom Cruise and Ben Affleck continue to bump their stars up against each other with Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and The Accountant.  Ouija hangs on for Halloween.  Keeping Up With the Joneses dies a slow, slow death.  And Storks continues to confuse children about babies for years to come. 

Check out the full estimated top ten*:

1. Boo! A Madea Halloween - $17.3 million
2. Inferno - $14.9 million
3. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back - $9.7 million
4. The Accountant - $8.5 million
5. Ouija: Origin of Evil - $7.2 million
6. The Girl on the Train - $4.4 million
7. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - $4.1 million
8. Keeping Up With The Joneses - $3.4 million
9. Storks - $2.9 million
10. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil - $2.2 million

*Box-office stats courtesy of boxofficemojo.com.