What’s that funny smell?
The pong coming from your local multiplex should be a hint that this has not been a great year at the movies.
Halfway through 2016, there are already flops a’plenty at the box office.
Latest brouhaha concerns Steven Spielberg’s The BFG — Big Friendly Giant — a dull affair that has been ignored by moviegoers. The movie did not have a big opening, an almost unheard-of phenomenon when you’re talking Spielberg.
It cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of $140 million to make, and brought in just under $20 million on opening weekend.
Of course, the movie could still do well internationally, so this is all moot.
But Spielberg is in good company. It has been a strange time for movies, with all kinds of projects unexpectedly crashing and burning at the box office. Of course, there are different ways of defining a flop — Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Warcraft are both behemoths of dreck, but international audiences will ensure that both are money-makers.
Then there are the bona fide financial losers on the big screen. Before listing some of this year’s biggest bombs, allow us to observe that audiences seem to be losing patience with remakes, sequels, re-imaginings, reboots and other euphemisms for tired retreads.
Gods of Egypt
The film got negative press before it opened, mostly for having white actors playing Egyptians, and plenty of negative press after it opened, because of bad storytelling and clunky special effects. And an excess of cheese.
Alice Through The Looking Glass
There are lots of reasons given for the failure of this movie — Johnny Depp’s box office appeal is waning, Tim Burton didn’t direct, the marketing wasn’t great — but really, did we need it? Alice in Wonderland was a so-so movie that turned out to be a big money-maker. Any sequel just looks like greed.
The Finest Hours
Disney honcho Robert Iger told Variety back in the March that the film would lose $75 million. The Finest Hours is set in the 1950s and concerns a real-life, heroic coast guard rescue. Nobody cared.
Independence Day: Resurgence
As the trades reported, this sequel made less in its opening weekend than the original 1996 movie did. Since movie tickets in 1996 cost half of what they cost now, you can see the problem. Two minutes of cool special effects did not compensate for two hours of dreary exposition.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Did we mention that unnecessary sequels struck moviegoers as greedy cash-grabs?
This film is considered better than the original, but earned $35 million on its U.S. opening weekend — and the original earned $65 million.
The Huntsman: Winter’s War
Another sequel nobody was buying. Loss estimates range from $30 - 70 million, depending upon who you ask. Kristen Stewart is probably thanking her lucky stars she avoided that mess.
The Nice Guys
This one is particularly tragic, as it suggests a grim future for certain types of movies. The Nice Guys got great reviews, but nobody went to see it. According to boxofficeflops.com, this film and Neighbours 2 created competition for one another, hurting both; on a $60 million budget, The Nice Guys will probably earn $35 million. Neighbours 2, meanwhile, also underperformed.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Here’s another sad story. The comedy got decent reviews but still earned back only half its budget.
X-Men: Apocalypse
No matter what else anyone tells you, this movie had a poor opening, earning $65 million where $100 million had been predicted. Superhero fatigue, anyone?
Zoolander 2
Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.
Spielberg's 'BFG' flop joins 'Zoolander 2' and 'X-Men' as one of 2016's biggest bombs
They are all flopping
is that the scene that made the government pass laws on animal abuse?
folks going ham just for a few seconds of footage 
