Every Fox Movie That Has Bombed Under Disney (And How Much They Lost)
3. Spies In Disguise ($34 Million Loss)
Production Budget: $100 million | Worldwide Gross: $166 million
While you can still catch Spies In Disguise in cinemas if you're absolutely desperate, it's pretty much made all the money that it's going to make.
And that's bad news for the powers-that-be, because it really didn't do as well as you'd expect from a big family animation, especially one released around Christmas time that had a big marketing push behind it.
According to Variety, Spies In Disguise had one of the highest spends in December when it came to TV spots for movies, beating out Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker and 1917. And that's just one facet of its marketing campaign too, which, thanks to several release date delays (it was originally set for January 2019), will have cost much more than it should have done.
It's not uncommon for studios to spend anywhere from $50 million - $100 million to market their major movies, so even if we lowball it and say that Spies In Disguise cost $50 million to advertise, that brings its total spend to $150 million.
Then, let's shave off $50 million (again, around a third) from its worldwide gross to give the movie theatres their slice of the pie, and you're left with $116 million of income versus a $150 million spend - a $34 million overall loss.
Now, there's a lot of guesswork here and we could easily be way off, but it's clear as day that Spies In Disguise did not turn a profit during its theatrical run - the only question is the size of the loss.