“In a Sea of Great B.O. Returns, Four Films Fizzled”

The Wrap looks at four films that have seriously underperformed at the B.O. in 2009:

In a year that has defied economic indicators from every other industry, the overall box-office tally is up year-to-date from 2008 by an incredible 14 percent.

But not everyone is enjoying the party.

“The Soloist” ($29 million), “State of Play” ($36 million), “Duplicity” ($40 million) and “Confessions of a Shopoholic” ($44 million) all can be considered wrong turns in ‘09.

And what do all four of these movies have in common?

“It’s the ‘Lions for Lambs’ syndrome,” said one agent, who would speak only on condition of anonymity. “Well-intentioned movies with noble messages and big stars always look great on paper. But right now, the mass audiences don’t want to see them.”

So dramas with big stars aimed at adult audiences are dead, right? We’ve been down this path on GITS before — here and here. But is this analysis legit?

First off, let’s consider total B.O. to date including international revenues:

Duplicity $69.5M
Production budget: $60M

State of Play $48.2M
Production budget: N/A

The Soloist $29.5M (not open in foreign markets yet)
Production budget: N/A

Confessions of a Shopaholic $100.6M
Production budget: N/A

Now let’s look at the movies’ ratings at Rotten Tomatoes:

The Soloist: 55%

Duplicity: 67%

State of Play: 88%

Confessions of a Shopaholic: 23%

So the movie with the lowest rating has done the most box office. It’s a rom-com, the others are ‘well-intentioned movies”. Hm. What to think…

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