LOS ANGELES—When director Christopher Landon introduced his new thriller, “Drop,” before its premiere at the Chinese Theater on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, he had a warning for the packed auditorium.
“It’s really hard out there for an original movie,” he said, urging everyone who liked the Universal Pictures release to “scream it from the rooftops” and on social media.
“Drop” opened this weekend to an estimated $7.5 million domestically, one of two new movies based on fresh ideas that fizzled at the box office. The other was Disney’s “The Amateur,” a spy thriller adapted from a little-known 1981 book, which opened to an estimated $15 million.
After years of gripes from average moviegoers and Hollywood insiders alike about the seemingly nonstop barrage of sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations of comic books and toys, the film industry placed more bets on original ideas.
The results have been ugly.
Nearly every movie released by a major studio in the past year based on an original script or a little-known book has been a box-office disappointment. Before this weekend’s flops were Warner Bros. Discovery’s“Mickey 17” and “The Alto Knights,” Paramount’s “Novocaine,” Apple’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” Amazon’s “Red One,” and the independently financed “Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1” and “Megalopolis.”
Jason Blum, who produced “Drop” and built his company Blumhouse largely on original horror franchises, said audiences’ preference for known properties has made it harder to release original movies in theaters, “even though that’s where some of the most exciting and risky storytelling still lives.”
Getting people into theaters more frequently is a priority for a movie industry still recovering from the pandemic. Box-office revenue in the first three months of this year in the U.S. and Canada was the lowest it has been, excluding the pandemic, since 1996.
At the CinemaCon industry convention in early April, theater owners said they welcome more original films, but only if they are backed by robust advertising campaigns. Building buzz for a new film in a media environment fractured between YouTube, TikTok, streaming and sports is tough, particularly when it is an unknown title.
“We’re opening films that have almost zero awareness,” said Bill Barstow, president of Main Street Theatres, a small Nebraska-based chain.
Many consumers are content to wait until an original motion picture is available to rent online a few weeks after its theatrical release or to stream on a service like Netflix in a few months.
The only films succeeding in the current environment are those with built-in audiences, like “A Minecraft Movie,” which was released in early April and has grossed more than $280 million domestically. And these days, even franchises can be far from a sure thing. Long-running series such as Marvel and DC superheroes and live-action remakes of Disney animated classics are showing their age and proving unreliable at the box office.
Studios say they have little choice but to make more original movies they hope will buck the odds.
“Telling original stories and taking risks is the only path toward creating new global franchises,” Bill Damaschke, Warner Bros.’ head of animation, said at CinemaCon.
Some of the increase in original film releases is attributable to Amazon and Apple, which are building film businesses with few well-established franchises. One of the biggest bets on an original film from any company this year is Apple’s “F1,” a June release starring Brad Pitt as a race-car driver.
Amazon hyped 11 coming movies to exhibitors at CinemaCon, of which six were originals. Among traditional studios, Warner Bros. is taking the most risks on originals, with big budget films from directors Paul Thomas Anderson and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Hollywood’s next original release comes Friday with Warner’s “Sinners,” a horror movie starring Michael B. Jordan. Next month even Marvel, home to Hollywood’s biggest franchises, is taking a gamble with “Thunderbolts,” about a super team brand new to all but the most devoted comic-book readers.