Avatar: Just before the end of the year, El Camino del Agua surpassed one billion dollars in revenue worldwide: it was expected, of course, but you also had to see the public’s reaction (and it is anecdotal, or not, that the movie requires an even bigger number, twice as big to be considered a success). The reason for this wait in front of a film that at another time would undoubtedly have been a success is that 2022 was a year where, in its own dangerous way, the splinters, or meteorites, fired by the pandemic and the quarantine continue to show their tracks, his way of generating the reconfiguration of an empire like Hollywood, which seemed invincible before the confinement and today is always waiting for the first post-premiere weekends. In 2021, only Spider-Man: No Way Home, not even James Bond, will light the fuse. The Sony release became the movie that literally brought people back to the movies. Spider-Man shook the billboard: he could go back to figures of yesteryear, he could think of rooms
Full and sold out. In a cinema that has many emergencies, one of them was able to return to theaters. This is how the spider hit of 2021 and our summer 2022 helped to lay the very slippery pavement that was this year, months of surprise and failure, of releases that did not see the expected results and thus cast doubt on models that were previously They thought they were invincible. Or others who do the opposite: they reaffirm that the giant tank produced by a huge studio is a massive weapon when it comes to summoning people.
The colossi. There are five studios that definitely what we see in movie theaters and that work, at least on our side of the world, as a thermometer for the industry: Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Sony. You have to understand that here we are talking about films that go to movie theaters, and that is why Netflix, creator and king of the current paradigm of modern entertainment, is not mentioned. The films of the majors achieved worldwide profits of 29 billion (in 2019 that number was 42.3 billion dollars). But the surprise came from the hand of Tom Cruise, the believer in the cinema: Top Gun: Maverick is the most watched movie of the year,
thus displacing the eternal event at the top of superheroes. Not only that, the second is precisely the sequel to Avatar that has achieved something that was expected: good numbers in a short time (although experts predict that if trends continue like this, the market would only return to a certain normality in 2024, if that’s possible). What impresses the most about 2022 are, as always, the flops: animated Disney had a lousy year, with flops like Lightyear and A Strange World, which really were great losses (although our country, children’s animation always rules and Lightyear reached the 1,590,000 viewers, and is the fifth most viewed film of the year). It has been a year like few others in the history of cinema, and each studio has had its problems and successes. It is time to understand them.
1 Disney Fails To Bring Back The Magic Of Marvel And Pixar
Most viewed globally: Avatar: The Waterway ($1.03 billion), Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (955 million), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (805 million)
Flops: A Strange World (66 million), Lightyear (226 million), Amsterdam (31 million)
If there is a company that has suffered from the pandemic, at least in terms of expectations, it is Disney. Before 2019, it was the leading company when it came to worldwide distribution. Along the way, Disney+ launched during the pandemic. Of course: it is still the biggest, and its failures generate more money than concerts by other companies. But the truth is that since Avengers: Endgame, Marvel has not been able to function as before at any level (barely at the box office, and especially considering that background). And Pixar is the brand that has suffered the most in its team, accumulating failures and films that are aimed at the platform. Perhaps the return of Bob Iger will help the fallen giant.
2 Paramount and the most powerful return of Tom Cruise’s career
Most viewed globally: Top Gun: Maverick (1.488 million), Sonic 2 (402 million), Jackass Forever (80 million)
Failures: Babylon (6 million)
Big-screen cinema owes a lot to Paramount: many of its films managed to sell much more than expected and on many scales. The big hit was Tom Cruise and the return of Top Gun in a sequel that exceeded all expectations and became an unprecedented blockbuster in the career of the big screen fundamentalist. But even films like Jackass Forever did a lot more than expected (it cost 10 million, won 800% of its total cost). Between these extremes, franchises that remain firm (such as Sonic and his impact on children) and just one stumble, the film Babylon, which here in Argentina ran in another direction. Paramount has been striking a balance that no other studio has achieved in the days of quarantine and pandemic. And everything indicates Cruise will continue to shine when it comes to red carpets.
3 Sony: Spider-Man’s Empire Still Looking For Its Opportunities
Most viewed globally: Uncharted (401 million), Bullet Train (293 million), The King Woman (92 million)
Flops: Morbius (167 million), Lilo Lilo Crocodile (87 million), Devotion (17 million)
At the beginning of 2022, Sony reigned: his Spider-Man: No Way Home, which had just been released in December 2021. And that reign, which refounded hope in packed rooms, opened the door to a series that was a bit schizophrenic but strangely successful premieres. It was a year of risks, of new franchises: Morbius was a quasi-failure (but it still cost 70 million, and made almost 170 million), Uncharted, based on the video game saga, released its biggest hit released in 2022, and Films like La mujer rey generated nominations and critical acclaim today. The door against the finger came from the side of a children’s film like Lilo Lilo Crocodile, which was expected to be a much bigger success, and Devotion, was the big setback although Sony only distributed it and not worldwide.
4 Universal: between dinosaurs, terror and minions, hits everywhere
Most viewed globally: Jurassic World Dominion (1.001 million), Minions: A Villain is Born (939 million), The Black Phone (161 million)
Flops: The 355 (27 million), The Northman (69 million), The Fabelmans (10.5 million)
Minions: A Villain is Born is the most watched film of 2022 in Argentina, with 4.5 million viewers. Not only that: the film almost reached the long-awaited 1 billion global profit, which makes it the most successful animated film in theaters in the past year. When it came to hits, Universal won big. Its closure of the Jurassic saga, with Jurassic World Dominion, exceeded 1000 million and The Black Telephone was one of those events that earned many times its cost (17 million, and earned 170 million). But Universal’s problem was its failure, which included several authors, from Steven Spielberg and his The Fabelmans (barely 11 million), to the film that narrates behind the scenes of the investigation that compromised Harvey Weinstein (She said, with his 10 million).
5 Warner Bros. discovery and the year Superman was fired
Most viewed globally: Batman (770 million), Elvis (286 million), DC League of Super Pets (220 million)
Flops: Fantastic Beasts 3: The Secrets of Dumbledore (405 million), Black Adam (389 million), Don’t Worry, Honey (86 million)
Well, if there was a major with problems and who did not hide them one bit, it was Warner. With a change of brand and leadership, came a violent cost cut that led to putting on a Batgirl movie, the return of Henry Cavill and which implied a year where Warner did not break the barrier of 1000 million with any of its films (even with its great success, the new recycling of Batman). Beyond a very sad end of the year for the company and for the fans, films like Elvis achieved a good number and at the same time a great impact on popular culture (which can lead to awards). The chaos behind Don’t worry, honey, big numbers won’t appear and the big flop was Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson’s super dream that didn’t have the impact that the actor usually has.
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