Dolittle may be the most expensive flop of 2020 so far but Paramount’s The Rhythm Section flopped in a spectacular way over the weekend & now Paramount is about to take a loss on the project.
It’s being reported that Paramount could lose $30-40 million on the film after its dismal opening of just $2.7 million. This is the lowest wide opening of Blake Lively’s movie career & it’s also the lowest opening ever for a film debuting at 3,000-plus theaters. So what went wrong here?
Paramount didn’t have much faith in the film as early as last April when the $50 million film wasn’t featured in its CinemaCon reel. Their lack of faith appeared to be justified once critics started to review the film & graced it with a 33% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The issue wasn’t Blake Lively, who even in the bad reviews received high notices for her performance. Lively can also open a film if they target her key demo of fans as we have seen with A Simple Favor ($97M million worldwide) & The Shallows ($119 million worldwide). The issue appears that this attempt to make a female-led James Bond type of film (it’s produced by the 007 producers) just didn’t come together from script to screen.
One issue that could be a reason things didn’t come together is a miscommunication on what the film was. The 007 producers always viewed it as a slow burn, noirish Euro thriller while Paramount viewed it as a female Bond film. Paramount won the fight on how to promote the film & clearly that’s not what the movie was intended to be. Early test screenings also didn’t go well and it was revealed to be one of the worst-tested titles in Paramount history. The “C+” CinemaScore from moviegoers also isn’t encouraging for word of mouth.
Another issue is that circumstances derailed the film as well. Blake Lively broke her hand during filming a fight scene with Jude Law and production was shut down until she could recover. This is one of the reasons the film shifted from its original release date. The delay didn’t cost the film any more money because insurance covered the injury but when Lively was revealed to be pregnant with her third child after filming had wrapped, the release date was pushed again so Lively could be fully available to promote the movie after giving birth. During this time, there were issues with post-production and it once again came down to the tone of the film. Director Reed Morano, Blake Lively, and the 007 producers had one vision while Paramount had another. Lively had no say since she wasn’t a producer and Paramount flexed its muscle to ultimately get the final cut.
Sometimes overseas earnings can help matters but that likely won’t be the case here. The overseas launch appears to be up in the air after the domestic opening & they’re even pondering a direct to video release for The Rhythm Section abroad.
