10 Awesome 2023 Movies That Didn't Deserve To Flop
6. Air
Much like Apple with Killers of the Flower Moon, Amazon couldn't have possibly expected that a $90 million drama about the origins of the Air Jordan shoe, without Michael Jordan depicted in a major capacity no less, would turn a profit theatrically.
Ultimately despite rave reviews and Oscar buzz, Air topped out at $90 million worldwide, which would've been a fine result had Ben Affleck's sports film been made for a more disciplined $20-40 million, but with a price tag just shy of that afforded to John Wick: Chapter 4, it never stood a chance.
But given that Air was originally supposed to release direct to Amazon Prime while foregoing a theatrical release entirely, things certainly could've been much worse, and the huge budget at least resulted in many involved with the project netting some of the biggest paydays of their careers.
Amazon was clearly most interested in driving subscribers to their streaming service with this movie, yet the murkiness of "success" in the streaming era makes it tough to discern whether their $90 million spend on Air - as well as $40-50 million marketing it - was actually worthwhile or not.