I was wondering how many 'blockbuster' movies have actually been successful so I looked at the US box Office for all the movies that had a published budget of more than $100M on 'The Numbers' website.
I left off all movies that are still in release because who knows how much they will make. This 'punished' Sony and 20th Century Fox (Spiderman, Minority Report and Clones).
That left 39 movies that had a published budget of $100M or more.
30.8% of them lost money (12)
17.9% of them made from from 0 to 19% profit (7)
12.8% of them made from 20% to 49% profit (5)
17.9% of them made from 50% to 99% profit (7)
15.4% of them made from 100% to 199% profit (6)
5.1% of them made from 200% to 275% profit (2)
Prior to this year Sony and Warner Bros were basically tied at zero - they hadn't really made any money overall on their 'blockbusters' - the losers equalled the winners. Obviously with Spiderman Sony is now in the black. Warner Bros did so well with Harry Potter last year that they overcame their Wild Wild West and AI deficit.
20th Century Fox knows how to make blockbusters - Titanic and the Star Wars movies really make their numbers incredible. But they have had their clinker - Speed II.
New Line is 'perfect' - 1 for 1 with LoTR
Disney is in the middle of the pack - profitable, but less than 25% overall.
Interesting idea though - I have read that US Box Office only represents one third of the money that a movie will make. Another third comes from Overseas Box Office, and the final third comes from Video/DVD rentals.
This would indicate that ALL movies with a budget greater than $100M made money with a single exception - 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within'.
So if that's true Disney should just cut the check for Ron H. and turn him loose - they can't lose!