The biggest flop of the year will likely be Universal’s steampunk fantasy adventure, Mortal Engines. The budget for this film was between $100 and $150 million and it just had a terrible opening weekend at the box office.
Mortal Engines made just $7.5 million domestically. In total, it’s made $42 million globally, but you have to remember they also spent millions marketing this film around the world, so in total they’ve probably spent closer to $200 million.
Experts believe this movie will lose the studio at least $100 million and the number could be even higher than that.
Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations, told Variety…
“This is a true Christmas disaster and a lump of coal for Universal. They took a big swing, and they struck out. Everybody is having a tough go trying to appeal to that YA marketplace. It’s a generation gap between studios and what they think young audiences like. TV is getting it right, and movies aren’t.”
According to the report, Universal should have seen this disaster coming. Both Warner Bros. and Fox passed on the project because of the convoluted plot.
If the movie performed well, the studio was prepared to turn this into a franchise, but it doesn’t look like that will be happening now.
