David O. Russel‘s star studded film Amsterdam which was predicted to earn at least $12 million to $15 million on its opening weekend has instead disappointed the parent studio Disney with a $6.5 million opening.
The film’s trailer garnered much attention and praise due to the presence of A-list celebrities and actors such as Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Taylor Swift, Michael Shannon. To mention a few. Sadly, their presence was barely enough to give the film a commercial head start at the box office and it only generated a combined $10 million both on the worldwide and domestic fronts.
For most films, this would be a decent start but Amsterdam cost a whopping 80 million dollars to make, not to talk of the extra marketing costs. It is definitely an ambitious amount for a comedy which makes 20th Century Fox and Disney’s investment more curious. Also, knowing the reputations of these studios, the director, and actors, it begs the question “why are audiences not seeing this film?
For one, David O. Russel‘s reputation may have contributed to the poor reception of this film. I’m 2011, his niece filed a report against him for alleged sexual assault. Russel himself has admitted to it but claimed that the niece was “acting very provocative toward him”. Another reason could be as a result of the film being panned by critics. It currently has a 32% rating on rotten tomatoes and 48% on meta critics.
Whatever the case, it sure does not look good for most comedies floated by big studios. Once again, the streamers win.
