As I like to remind all the screenwriters out there… always keep an eye on the box office. Hollywood spends so much money on productions these days that a single unexpected triumph or a single earth-shattering failure can create a tectonic shift in the business. Look no further than Solo. Many considered Star Wars the most bullet-proof brand of them all. Solo barely clearing 200 million domestically resulted in Disney pulling their “2 Star Wars Movies a Year” plan and icing all Star Wars movies after Episode 9. A single bomb could mark that current script you’re working on irrelevant. Or an unexpected hit could mean that idea you’ve been sitting on is all of a sudden a hot commodity. So always keep up to date. Here are 10 2018 overperformers and underperformers and the reasons for their box office results.
OVERPERFORMERS
The Meg ($142 mil dom, $525 mil worldwide) – Sharks, sharks, sharks, sharks, and sharks. Probably the most bullet-proof subject matter there is behind horror. When’s the last time you heard of a shark movie doing bad? To show you how solid this genre is, look no further than 47 Meters Down. That movie was supposed to go direct-to-video. Instead they released it in theaters and it made 44 million dollars. Wow.
Crazy Rich Asians ($169 mil dom, $226 mil worldwide) – Crazy Rich Asians brought back an old-school approach to movie-making – Introduce us to a unique culture and tell us a story within that culture that is both entertaining and educational. Something that’s oft-forgotten is that audiences want unique experiences. If you can introduce them to a fresh world that they haven’t seen before, and promise them they’ll be entertained in the process? They’ll show up.
A Quiet Place ($188 mil dom, 334 mil worldwide) – I don’t care what anybody here says. This was a genius concept. I knew it the second I read the script. I knew right away it was going to make a ton of money. You can either keep complaining or seek to understand why this did well. Because these are some of the last concepts a screenwriter can come up with and make a big spec sale with. A family that operates in a post-apocalyptic monster-ridden world where you can’t make a sound. Boom. That’s a dream concept producers everywhere would die to find the next version of.
Hereditary ($44 mil dom, $79 mil worldwide) – Hereditary proves the value of the horror brand. This is about as non-traditional as a horror film gets. It’s dark and weird and unsettling. In other words, it’s not “The Nun.” But if you can come up with a great image or a great trailer that promises scares? People are going to show up. Which is why if you’re a screenwriter who likes horror even a LITTLE bit, you should be writing in it. While the rest of your screenwriting friends are debating what’s more important, theme or a character’s fatal flaw, you’ll be deciding whether to buy a house next to Leonardo DiCaprio or Will Smith.
Searching ($25 mil dom, $65 mil worldwide) – Searching is a film that begs the question to every screenwriter trying to break in: “What are you waiting for?” People are making movies where they don’t have to leave their bedroom! Why are you complaining that nobody will read your script when there are clearly opportunities to write and create movies for next to nothing? Do you have any idea how hard making movies used to be? You used to need to buy film. FILM! And it was expensive. Now you can use your darn phone. Stop the excuses!
UNDERPERFORMERS
Skyscraper ($67 mil dom, $303 mil worldwide) – If “Crazy Rich Asians” is the embodiment of giving us something new, Skyscraper is the embodiment of giving us everything old. I mean, these people do realize they’re remaking Die Hard, right? This reminds me of the crap studios used to pull before social media could destroy word-of-mouth in less than 12 hours, where they’d vomit out an unoriginal screenplay then try to hide it behind a big star. Audiences aren’t fooled by that anymore. Studios? You have to do better.
Tag ($54 mil dom, $77 mil worldwide)– Imagine coming up with an idea that had absolutely no stakes at all (someone getting tagged is literally the stakes of the movie) and then asking people to pay to see your movie. Slap onto that “tweener” status (when a movie is stuck between genres – this one both a comedy and a drama) and you’ve got a disaster in the making. As long as we’re here, let’s add the trifecta. The movie ends at a wedding. A wedding! The ONE THING you have going for you here is that your idea’s a little bit unique. So instead of embracing that you give us the most cliche ending scenario of them all? They should’ve gone full comedy here and figured out a plot that had some actual stakes. Also, casting Jeremy Renner in anything that involves comedy was the final nail in the coffin.
The Happytime Murders ($20 mil dom, $25 mil worldwide) – Here’s an odd one. This movie is actually giving us something we desire – a fresh idea. Yet it bombed. And not just bombed. People gleefully celebrated its demise. You realize you’re the same people who complain that Hollywood never tries anything new, right? “But, but, but…” you say, “we DO want something new. We just want the good kind of new.” You can’t have it both ways. You have to celebrate when people take chances, even if they fail. The reason this movie failed is a subtle one, and one of the hardest to calculate as a screenwriter – tone. I like the idea of puppets acting bad. But they pushed it too far. I mean, at one point, they have a puppet ejaculating for five minutes onscreen. Somewhere around 15 seconds is when you know you’ve gone too far. If they would’ve pulled the humor back and made it a little less risky, I could see this being a success.
Tomb Raider ($57 mil dom, $273 mil worldwide) – There wasn’t a single person who came out of Tomb Raider and said, “Man, I’ve never seen that scene before!” Tomb Raider suffered from “Save the Cat” syndrome. This is when you follow the formula so closely, there isn’t a single surprising or fresh idea in your screenplay. Yes, you could take your script in front of a USC screenwriting panel and point out how every single component of the script is perfect. But screenplays can’t just be technically perfect. They have to be imaginative, creative, and unexpected. You have to make bold choices every once in awhile so that your story feels original. I didn’t like Hereditary (spoiler), but the choice to kill off the sister halfway through the script helped separate that film from everything else in 2018.
Fahrenheit 11/9 ($6 mil dom, $6 mil worldwide) – A documentary? Carson, have you gone mad? What does the box office of a documentary film have to do with screenwriting? I’m actually including this movie for a specific reason, one that director Michael Moore is so out of touch with, he wasted millions of dollars and a year of his life for. What’s the lesson? Don’t write anything that people can get for free. Back in 2002, we didn’t have hundreds of online political outlets to spout off about 9/11. Which is why that earlier documentary made so much money. It was one of the few places you could go to get a thoughtful detailed look at how 9/11 went down. But now, the second anything happens in the news, there are hundreds of Youtube channels breaking it down WITHIN HOURS. If we can get it for free without having to put our clothes on, why would we pay $15 bucks to go see it in the theater? Let this lesson extend to the concepts you choose to write. Give us things we can’t get anywhere else but the movies. What are examples of documentaries that fit this bill? Tickled and Three Identical Strangers.
