Ben Affleck‘s been having a rough go at the movies lately — especially with his latest flick completely bombing in theaters … whereas his wife is thriving in the streaming world.
The actor’s latest offering, “Hypnotic,” flailed miserably at the box office this weekend … raking in just $2.3 million from the 2,100 or so theaters it was playing in. The Robert Rodriguez-directed sci-fi thriller wasn’t released by a major studio — two independent production companies are behind it … and BA’s the marquee talent by a mile as far as cast.
The worst part is that Ben’s film reportedly cost around $65 mil to make … so, yeah, it’s coming in at a huge loss. Plus, the reviews stink. Now, his other recent film, “Air,” did much better in theaters (around $85M worldwide so far) — but that one reportedly cost about $90M to produce … meaning it’s just barely breaking even, although it fared better with critics.
Bottom line … Ben hasn’t been cleaning up in ticket sales, but Jennifer Lopez is killing it with at-home viewers. Her new movie, “The Mother,” is apparently #1 on Netflix in several countries right now — and her other recent flick, “Shotgun Wedding” did well for Amazon too.
As far as substance, both of J Lo’s movies have gotten very meh reviews — especially ‘SW.’ And while her flicks are cranking out good numbers for the streaming services they’re released on … it’s hard to gauge what that actually translates to for a bottom line.
Streaming companies tend to keep that data to themselves … so there’s no telling if any given movie actually converts to more subscribers — which is how they make money.
The takeaway … it’s harder to turn a profit in theaters with original flicks not tied to existing IP, and on the flip side — it’s also hard to tell if streaming success means anything. However, since there’s a better spin on the latter, Ben might wanna reconsider his approach.
Welcome to moviegoing in 2023!!!