Predicting the 5 Biggest Box Office Bombs of Summer 2017

     Summer blockbuster season is upon us.  This is the time of year studios spent billions of dollars to try and make money off of summer movie goers.  More and more, studios are producing movies that are known as tentpoles.  Tentpoles are movies that studios spend an immense amount of money on, with hopes to make back two or three times back what they spent to create the film.  Not only do these movies cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce, but they cost even more to market and create merchandise for.  A couple of years ago, there were maybe four or five massive tentpoles per summer.  Today, there is almost one tentpole being released for every week of this year in cinema.  Beinga s crowded on the schedule as they are, it is becoming more impossible for movie sto make money back.  As budgets rise, the expectation that a movie should make back half of its budget the opening weekend is becoming a far less plausible possibility.  Some of these tentpole films have already seen massive success such as Beauty and the Beast and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.  Several of these films will lose their studios a massive amount of money this year.  Here are my predictions for the biggest bombs of 2017.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (Release Date: May 12th)

     This isn't really a prediction rather than a definite happening.  Made on a $175 million dollar budget,   (excluding marketing)  King Arthur is supposed to collect a measly $25 million at the box office this weekend.  This probably due terrible reviews (currently sitting at a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes) and the probable holdover box office success of GotG Vol. 2 and The Fate of the Furious.  Guy Ritchie's serries of  dumbed down of classic British legends will probably end, and this film will absolutely not get the six sequels Ritchie had planned.  Who even wanted six sequels??   Who wanted the first one? 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales ( Release Date: May 26th)

    On paper, this looks like a box office success.  The previous Pirates movies have all been massive box office success, no matter how abysmal they were (cough..cough. At World's End)  It has also been six year since the last Pirates of the Caribbean film.  When On Stranger Tides came out in 2011, Johnny Depp was at the peak of his reign as box office king.  now, Depp's star has fallen very far, with recent bombs such as Transcendence and Alice: Through the Looking Glass.  This paired with the astounding reported budget of $320 million dollar budget of Dead Men Tell No Tales make it almost imminent that it will flop.  

Wonder Woman (Release Date: June 2nd)

      Okay hear me out.  Wonder Woman will make more than its budget back and will make lots of money at the box office.  That being said, Warner Brothers spending on their DC Extended Universe films has been careless and exorbitant.  Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was $250 million to make, and probably close to $400 million by the time marketing was finished.  To see the profit that Warner Brothers was hoping for, they would have needed to gross $1 billion at the box office.  The film fell well short of their expectations.  Wonder Woman definitely more frugal than the previously mentioned film, but I guarantee it still cost a pretty penny.  It will be interesting to see how a female-centered superhero movie will fair at the box office. Critics reviews will play a large part in this, just as it did with Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad.  Will it match Warner Bros. expectations, or will box office misogyny take some effect?  We will have to see when June 2nd comes around. 

The Mummy (Release Date: June 9th)

Were you aware that Universal is creating a cinematic universe of their own?  Trying to imitate Marvel's cash cow, Universal is trying to create a shared existence of all of their classic monsters including The Mummy, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Invisible Man.  The idea to me sounds absolutely preposterous, but apprently they have cashed all their chips in on this idea.  Spending a whopping $125 million on the pilot film of their vision, I cannot imagine The Mummy will make anything close to its budget back. S milar to Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise's star has fallen very far as he gets older.  The mission seems impossible for this movie to make money this summer.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Release Date: July 21st)

   I had no idea where this movie came from.  Apparently these Valerian comic books are insanely popular and I had no idea they ever existed.  I consider myself pretty nerdy, so if I don't know where this idea originated, I doubt the average movie fan will either.  This movie comes out in a two week period that will probably be dominated with Spider Man: Homecoming and War for the Planet of the Apes.  Also, Dunkirk begin its theatrical run the same day as Valerian.  Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan  also have little to no star power to muster any sort of audience for this film. I highly doubt this film will even come close to meeting its $180 million dollar budget.  This could possibly kill the career of action and science fiction fan favorite director Luc Besson when this film inevitably flops. 

     I would love for some of these movies to prove me wrong, and be critical and box office success at the box office.  Be sure to keep checking in with my predictions and give me lots of criticism.