8 Lessons Studios Must Learn To Avoid Making Box-Office Duds
5. Some Types Of Film Are Not Popular With Audiences
Okay, show of hands; who actually thought that King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword was going to be a critical or financial success? You could smell the stench of a box-office flop on this one from miles away.
And that was without pre-judging the quality of the film itself - for all we knew, it could have been fantastic - and instead, it's an observation based on the fact that big-budget historical epics have not been clicking with audiences for a while now.
Exodus: Gods And Kings was a disappointment, with a meagre $24 million opening on a $140 million budget; the Ben-Hur remake was dead-on-arrival, failing to make back the money it cost to produce; and the less said about Gods Of Egypt, the better.
Looking at all this evidence, why would a studio greenlight another historical sword-slasher? Audiences simply do not respond to them, whatever the reason may be. Maybe Game Of Thrones is already scratching that itch. In any event, it's foolish to continue making these things.
Some genres do better than others - moviegoers seem to like their space movies at the minute, as Gravity, The Martian, Interstellar and Arrival will tell you - and others, like the big-budget historical epic, are best left alone.
Let's all pray for next year's Robin Hood reboot...