10 Awesome 2023 Movies That Didn't Deserve To Flop
4. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant
The Covenant is one of the year's most pleasant surprises so far - a war film from Guy Ritchie which ditches the filmmaker's signature cheeky style for a more serious-minded and surprisingly affecting drama topped by terrific performances from Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim.
Hell, it even snagged an "A" CinemaScore, indicating it could become a breakout box office hit. But it never came to pass, with the film concluding its run with an atrocious $21.8 million worldwide, against a $55 million budget no less.
Despite the appeal of both Ritchie and Gyllenhaal, the general success of war movies at the box office, and seemingly sensible(ish) budget considering the genre, The Covenant died on the vine.
There are a few obvious factors to blame - first and foremost, MGM's marketing spend was clearly tiny, and by sending it out into just 2,611 cinemas in the U.S. - a low number for a war movie with an A-list lead - they didn't even attempt to maximise its commercial potential.
It may also be that a serious war film from Guy Ritchie of all directors simply threw audiences for a loop, that they didn't know what to expect from it. Either way, it deserved to do so much better than this.