Coining the Flopbuster
- Lukas Kendall
- Jul 26, 2023
- 1 min read
Barbie and Oppenheimer are the big movie news at the moment, having opened to record numbers.
And both are originals! Although, of course, Barbie is based on a world-famous brand. And Oppenheimer has the Christopher Nolan “brand”—almost like what a new Kubrick film used to be. I guess Tarantino is still that way, too.
I read this article a few weeks ago about the “flopbuster,” specifically referring to Indiana Jones and the Dial of the Destiny: a movie which opened to numbers that used to be considered big, but cost so much that it’s nonetheless a financial disappointment.
Weird times!
Costs REALLY need to come down. Dial Of Destiny cost $300 million (without advertising!), and yet looked like SHIT compared to the original trilogy (or, hell, even Crystal Skull). Disney's blowing $200 mil a pop on generic D+ MCU shows like She-Hulk and Secret Invasion, both of which didn't look more expensive than a typical episode of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Meanwhile, you have Universal spending a relatively thrifty $100 million apiece on Oppenheimer and Super Mario Bros., both of which went through the roof (ditto Sony with Across The Spider-Verse). That all of these movies are actually, you know, GOOD as opposed to ludicrously expensive crap like Dial Of Destiny, The Flash, and Fast X (all franchises that are very…
Maybe Oppenheimer is a remake of Fat Man and Little Boy from 1989?