Fur flies for ‘Cats’ and other bombs
This year ends amid cheers for movie box office triumphs (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”) and critical raves for films that will reverberate in the awards season to come (“Little Women”). But let’s take a moment to mourn the movie bombs of 2019. There were some serious clunkers from both audacious risk-taking auteurs and generally safe-betting studios. Choosing five of this year’s major malfunctions is a challenging, inexact science – taken from a combination of wildly unmet expectations, social media outcry and cold, hard numbers. Here are the five biggest bombs of 2019:
‘Cats’ threw up a box office hairball
This “Cats”-astrophe is still playing out as the musical crashes at the box office.
But the “Cats” demise – despite its cast that included Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, James Corden and Judi Dench – started with a trailer that drew instant online fire in July.
Director Tom Hooper, whose 2012 Christmas launch of the unconventional “Les Misérables” stormed the box office and won Anne Hathaway an Oscar, continued to make adjustmentseven after the release of “Cats.” But the $95 million fantasy was savaged with an 18% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes as critics and audiences struggled with characters under computer-generated fur who have human hands.
“Cats” clawed out $11.2 million in global box office, but don’t expect
the kind of holiday miracle that saved the critically derided “The Greatest Showman,” despite some brave supporters. “The final verdict is still out on ‘Cats,’ but one of the longest-running Broadway shows of all time couldn’t make a dent at the box office,” says Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations.
The toy movie nobody wanted: ‘Playmobil: The Movie’
It was a tough year for toy-tomovie transformations, from notable underperformers such as “Ugly Dolls” and “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.” The Lego-esque knockoff “Playmobil: The Movie” was next level, opening to a horrible $656,530 nationally in 2,337 theaters. It was the third-worst all-time debut for a title opening in 2,000 lo
cations, despite cinemas across the country offering discounted $5 tickets, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which called the bomb level “epic.”
Critics threw out “Playmobil” with a 16% Rotten Tomatoes score, and the toy movie marketing never caught the attention of kids.
‘Dark Phoenix’ brought the wrong closure to ‘X-Men’
You can’t expect every superhero saga to go out with a Marvel “Avengers: Endgame” kaboom. “Dark Phoenix” brought 20th Century Fox’s “X-Men” saga to a disappointingly sagging end after 12 films featuring a cast that includes James McAvoy (Professor Charles Xavier), Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique). Bestowing a 23% Rotten Tomatoes rating, critics decried how the once-appealing franchise had fallen and the audience never went beyond “X-Men” fanatics.
Even taking $252 million globally, with a heavy emphasis on international box office, the costly film (shot on a $200 million budget) was a money loser and marked a sputtering “XMen” end.
Reboot hell for ‘Charlie’s Angels’
Rebooting historically profitable franchises proved to be a challenge in 2019. Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson failed without Will Smith in “Men in Black: International” and Arnold Schwarzenegger unsuccessfully reprised his most famous role for “Terminator: Dark Fate.”
The reboot of the 1970s TV series “Charlie’s Angels,” which ruled in two profitable films in 2000 and 2003, went to the opposite of movie heaven. Millennial Angels Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska (and director Elizabeth Banks starring as Bosley) generated a 51% Rotten Tomatoes critical score. These Angels missed the fan love, taking $57 million worldwide on a $48 million budget.
‘The Goldfinch’ doesn’t fly
We were supposed to be talking about director John Crowley’s film adaptation of Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Goldfinch” during awards season. Ansel Elgort seemed to be perfectly cast as troubled New York City denizen Theo Decker.
The $45 million drama imploded with critics, earning a 24% Rotten Tomatoes rating. After a disastrous opening weekend in September, “Goldfinch” eked out nearly $10 million worldwide.