Knives Out marked a return of the all-star ensemble murder mystery, and Hollywood took notes on that film’s financial success. In addition to shelling out huge money to turn Knives Out into a franchise (with The Glass Onion coming out soon), studios suddenly greenlighted several ensemble murder mysteries, including David O. Russell’s Amsterdam. Amsterdam stars Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington and it features extended cameos by people like Chris Rock, Taylor Swift, Robert DeNiro, Anya Taylor Joy, Mike Myers and on and on. Well, maybe it’s the stink of David O. Russell or maybe it’s just a bad movie, but audiences have rejected Amsterdam. The film is probably going to lose more than $100 million for New Regency and Disney.
Amsterdam has been sent packing. David O. Russell’s new movie — featuring a star-studded cast led by Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington — opened to a dismal $6.4 million in North America over the Oct. 7-9 weekend despite a wide release by New Regency and Disney in more than 3,000 theaters.
Amsterdam ultimately stands to lose anywhere from $80 million to $100 million, according to box office analysts and financing sources surveyed by The Hollywood Reporter. The film’s target audience — older adults — are unfortunately a no-show in terms of the numbers needed following poor reviews. New Regency fully financed the quirky period comedy, which cost at least $80 million to produce, and also spent $70 million on the global marketing campaign (some suggest the campaign cost closer to $80 million).
“This is a high-risk movie that is based entirely on execution,” says another source. “Why would they try to thread this needle at this price?”
Insiders say the movie’s original budget was $50 million, but that tens of millions were tacked on as a result of having to move the production from Boston to Los Angeles just before shooting was to begin because of the pandemic. (As with many other movies during the COVID-19 era, the production start date was ultimately delayed.)
At this pace, Amsterdam may only earn $18 million domestically and shy of $40 million globally.
What’s shocking to me is that they spent $80 million on this production and then topped it off with a $70-80 million marketing campaign! Who the f–k signed off on that? The brilliance of the “return to murder mysteries” is that those films should be (ideally) pretty inexpensive to make AND market. There is no need for expensive special effects or extensive post-production fixes. You literally just need actors acting and an interesting set. The “murder mystery” genre is actually perfect for streaming companies – inexpensive to produce, quick turn-around, easy to find top talent to work on a breezy six-to-eight week production. Trust David O. Russell to f–k it all up.
Photos courtesy of New Regency/Disney.
32% on Rotten Tomatoes. And the audience score is only 59%, which is super low when there’s no troll-bombing. I read a few reviews, and the agreement is that the cast is bloated, the story is a tangled mess, and the whole thing is pretentious nonsense. And that, overall, the movie is just plain not entertaining at all. Too bad for the actors — but there are too damn many of them in this thing anyway.
I’m looking forward to Glass Onion!
I can’t explain it-I just have absolutely zero interest in seeing this film. Looks like needless, majority-white people parading around in expensive costumes. Nep.
On the other hand, I went to see Tár last weekend and Blanchett was phenomenal. I have issues with her politics and some of her views around feminism, or at least her responsibility to it, but her talent is undeniable. I’m still thinking about that movie, so much to digest. It’s long, so be aware, but otherwise, it’s VERY good.
I’ve been looking forward to See How The Run with Saoirse Ronan and Sam Rockwell. The madcap murder mystery in a theatre peaked my interest.
Somehow I missed that Amsterdam even existed until the last week or so. When I heard about it I figured I’d check it out. But when I saw the first ad, and got to the part where they showed Mike Myers, my brain just Noped out. I had no idea he was a movie stopper for me. But he is.
I might check it out on streaming some rainy day, but not going to the movies for this.
Me too! I’m going try and catch See How They Run in the theatre this weekend!
I saw “See how they run” in theatres and really enjoyed it. A nice fun caper. I passed on this one after watching a trailer because I couldn’t understand the plot from the trailer- and all the stars felt like it would be too bloated. I see I was right!
I know this says they spent 80 million on marketing, but where and why and how? The only place I have heard of this movie is here, on Celebitchy, from other commenters saying things like “well Amsterdam is coming out” etc. So the marketing has totally missed me, as a 40 year old woman who loves murder mysteries.
and yeah, isnt part of their appeal that they should be relatively easy to make? the cast stays together mostly, you don’t have that many sets (unless its Death on the Nile, which was surprisingly enjoyable in my opinion), there usually aren’t a lot of special effects, etc. For me part of the appeal of Knives Out was that it was almost like Clue, a bunch of people stuck in a house with one person dead (I know they left the house here and there but it was set at the house primarily.)
Finally, look at that movie with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. Wasn’t it just called “Murder Mystery”? I watched it on Netflix and enjoyed it but never would have paid for it in a theater. It also cracked me up bc my husband and I were just like, so Adam Sandler wanted to go on vacation with his friends and turn it into a movie and this was the best way lol.
Same. I’m exactly the target audience for the “bunch of rich people stuck together and one of them gets murdered” type of mystery. And the first time I saw anything about this movie was when I saw an article somewhere about how bad it is. I wonder if that “marketing” budget went somewhere else. The studio should hire some accountants to look into it.
Are people sure its a murder mystery? Watch the trailer and tell me what type of movie it is. I’ve seen the trailer 3 or 4 times and even a few interviews and still can’t tell you what the movie is about. Except a buch of big name stars.
Same-ity same same – I am 100% the audience for a gorgeously produced murder mystery film like this and I am pretty sure I have never heard of it (though if I missed it here on Celebitchy, I am sorry). Where were they marketing it?
I should also be the target audience for this but I haven’t seen any marketing at all. David O’Russell is an abusive asshole who I wish would not keep getting projects. Where’s “cancel culture” when you need it?
I’ve been seeing Amsterdam adds on Instagram this week. I almost went to see it last Sat night but went saw See How They Run instead.
It’s all over YouTube as well, literally every other ad break
I don’t really ever go on youtube besides Disney park videos when I’m planning a trip LOL so I haven’t seen ads there and NOTHING on my IG, which is just kind of weird. They’re completely missing me….maybe bc they’ve figured out I don’t go to the movies LOLOL.
70 to 80 million dollars on a marketing campaign, and I honestly cannot remember seeing an ad for this ANYWHERE. Now, I don’t subscribe to print magazines anymore, and I don’t have cable, but I do use a couple of streaming platforms that have unavoidable commercials, and I’m on the internet all damn day long, and… nothing. The existence of this movie barely crossed my radar at all. And at age 45 I probably am in the target audience, so… I’m baffled. Utterly baffled.
I saw ads for it on Ovation/Sundance, CBS, and possibly WE.
Well, the marketing sucked because in what little I saw (and that was very little), I never got the feel of the film or exactly what it is about. I really like most of the actors, but am totally meh about watching it, especially given who directed it.
Based on the BO of Bros & Amsterdam, I think Netflix is making the right call with the release of The Glass Onion. They’ve been getting questioned on it by some, but seems the “special preview” one weekend release in 300 theaters gets them award qualifications and some hype, and then full release on streaming will get them big viewership #s. If Bros was streaming I would have watched it first weekend.
I don’t think you can compare The Glass Onion to Bros and Amsterdam. Knives Out was big and The Glass Onion is said to be even better. Netflix isn’t going to cannibalize its streaming numbers by keeping it in theaters longer though, even if a $100 million box office is extremely possible.
That’s a fair point. The Glass Onion has tons of momentum and interest already + great reviews this far (I can’t wait to see it). Not apples to apples.
But, I do think both these films show that a sizable portion of the 35+ age group of movie-watchers (like me) is still fickle about going to the movie theaters. I need a really good reason and neither of these films are giving it
There is still risk with a wide theatrical-only release of certain genres even with (Bros) or without (Amsterdam) good reviews. The model of theatrical + streaming release might bring more success for some films.
Let’s see how the Roberts/Clooney film does next weekend.
Lol, according to a lot of the reviews, people watching the actual film didn’t know exactly what it was about.
Well I guess the marketing folks didn’t have much to work with from the start then! 😂
I had no idea this was coming out! And like the commenters above, I am definitely their target audience! I watched the trailer and it just looks a little off…over the top in a way that I don’t think will work well, like Christian Bale’s accent and hair for example. I’ll watch it when it goes streaming but not in the theaters.
I didn’t see much marketing, but I did see a whole lot of bad reviews. No need to spend $15 to have those reviews confirmed.
Add me to the list of people who hadn’t heard about this movie until reports of it bombing at the box office. I haven’t seen any ads, and I also haven’t seen pictures of its many attractive stars doing promotional work on fashion sites.
Beyond that, it seems pretty obvious that if you’re aiming a movie at the adult, non-comic book audience, you need to pay attention to the script and make sure there’s something worth watching there. It’s been proven many times over that modern audiences will not go to the box office to see major stars if that’s the only thing on offer. Either the movie needs to be good or it needs a bunch of special effects or both.
Knives Out was fun – really fun – and there’s nothing about Amsterdam’s trailer or promotion that captures a similar sense of fun. Knives Out came across as breezy, whereas Amsterdam is full of try-hard. Hard pass, even if it was streaming.
Sometimes a film just has this energy to it where you get a very strong feeling that everyone working on it actually ENJOYED the process of making the film, which I feel was the case with Knives Out.
We need more productions like that, and less of the ‘directors physically and psychologically torturing their (usually female) actors because the director insists on forcing the Method School of acting on his cast and crew without their prior knowledge or consent’.
I saw Tim Olyphant somewhere plugging his part in this and the clip they showed..Ugh!
Big, expensive cast, but the story doesn’t interest me.
The cost of movies these days, Nope.
I think the ad budget is bs. Trying for a tax write off, maybe?
Omg have you seen the Taylor Swift clip? Yikes.
First Cats, now Amsterdam. Can I safely call these movies flopping the Taylor Swift Curse, or does there need to be more examples? One flop is bad luck, two is a coincidence, if there is a third I’m definitely blaming her.
I love a good murder mystery but for me that requires a big old fancy house and a moody setting done with a certain style. Knives Out had it all and it’s still one of my go-to movies to put on in the background. I saw the Amsterdam preview and to me it looked like a silly madcap caper movie which is take or leave it territory for me (and most of America it seems.)
The giver was also a flop, it also had Taylor.
The trailer for this was straight-up awful–no real sense of period or a concrete idea what this was about. I had to go online to suss out it was a murder mystery loosely based on an attempted 30s fascist takeover of the US. (Babylon’s trailer is super-frenetic too, but at least you can figure the basic storyline.) This looked like contemporary actors doing noir-farce cosplay.
@Deering24 – Thanks for doing the research! “A murder mystery loosely based on an attempted 30s fascist takeover of the US” – OK, shovel on a bleep-load of “names” making “faces” and no wonder it’s a mess.
Heh–you’re welcome. 🙂 That is a solid movie premise, but Russell hasn’t done it justice here.
My 2 cents – David got jelly over Rian’s success and wanted to compete and top him. David is neither light hearted in any of his film’s delivery (I heart Huckabees) nor like mysteries enough to take them remotely seriously.
Knives Out was fun, campy and well acted.
I will watch Amsterdam once it is free. My problem is I am not a big Bale fan…he seems really uptight.
Love her music, but as soon as I saw that T. Swift was in this, I lost interest. Also, the trailer was basically just a catalogue of the 10,000 actors in this film and never got to the plot, so I don’t even know what it’s about!
I love murder mysteries and fell into them hard during the pandemic. I saw one ad for this, made a note to watch it, and saw Christian bale do a “reflecting on his career” type video to remind me to watch this (and it was a good vid!) , but I have covid this week and can’t leave the house, and besides, this is something I would watch at home. Knives out 2 I may go to the theatre for because I loved the first one. But murder mysteries in general are just great to watch at home, in a cosy room. Also, the trailers aren’t very good? And Margot Robbie just doesn’t fit in this kind of period piece, in my opinion. Was not excited about her in this, it really pulled me out of this. But was excited about the other cast members. Sorry to hear its bad, will probably wait to watch it now….
It was so expensive to make because everyone is jumping on the Knives Out train and they are making these movies with BIG casts with lots of A-listers. DeNiro, Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana…. these actors don’t (and shouldn’t) come cheap.
Honestly, you’d think they’d have the sense to have one or two quality red hot names ($$$), a good smattering of character actors and a handful of mid-range and minor big names (much less $$$), maybe one or two next big things (before they take off and while they’re still relatively cheap), and top it off with a couple veteran Hollywood Royalty folks who were quality red hot names twenty to fifty years ago and can still draw in considerably larger crowds than the studio executives think they can because while they are no longer in the ‘fuckable’ age range they are still damn good actors and everybody knows it (more $ than those stuffed suits want to pay but far less $ than they’re really worth).
You know, like Knives Out did.
Knives out was not that good, Craig stunk hard, just good timing when everyone was watching everything being released because of the ‘release’ famine