20 Recent Box Office Flops Everyone Saw Coming
11. Eddington
Though Ari Aster's first two films, acclaimed horror flicks Hereditary and Midsommar, were massive hits for A24, Aster's third feature Beau Is Afraid - a far more ambitious swing of a black comedy-horror - was a rather predictable flop, its mainstream-alienating premise rustling up just $12.3 million against a $50 million budget.
Everything we heard pre-release about Aster's fourth film, Eddington, was that it was another not-particularly-commercial genre-bending experiment that served as a satire of the entire "COVID era."
For one, there are many who just aren't interested in watching a movie that revisits the most miserable period of their lives, even through a darkly satirical lens, and on top of this, reviews were wildly mixed, enough that even an all-star cast led by Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler couldn't much help it.
Even with a more hemmed-in $25 million budget compared to Beau Is Afraid, Eddington cracked only $12.7 million - just a fraction more than Aster's previous film.
It'll certainly be interesting to see if back-to-back flops impact Aster's relationship with A24 at all, but considering he's one of the most singular filmmaking voices working today, hopefully he'll keep getting to produce his visionary, not-for-everyone art.