Box Office: As ‘Bad Boys 3’ And ‘Sonic’ Ruled, ‘1917’ Became One Of The Top-Grossing War Movies Ever

Before theaters shut down, DreamWorks and Universal’s Oscar-winning 1917 continued to make a case that there are different kinds of movies that “demanded to be seen in a theater.”

In the first of two pieces are entirely unrelated news that I’m combining for a convenient segue-way, Universal
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announced a bunch of release dates of untitled theatrical releases, affirming that they are still planning on releasing movies in theaters for the near future. Universal will debut an untitled flick (event movie or otherwise) on January 14, 2022 (against 20th Century’s Nimona and Warner Bros.’ Sesame Street movie), February 11, 2022 (versus Paramount’s Tiger Apprentice and Disney
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’s Thor: Love and Thunder), June 10, 2022 (against an untitled 20th Century Studios release), July 22, 2022 (against a Paramount toon) and November 18, 2022 (against WB’s pre-Thanksgiving biggie, which, total speculation, might be a theoretically delayed Fantastic Beasts 3).

For the record, I’ll tip my hat if Universal slots that James Wan-produced monster movie against Sesame Street, mostly because I’d find that funny. Anyway, we also got word yesterday that Walt Disney’s next theatrical Star Wars movie would be directed and co-written by Oscar winner Taika Waititi. The other co-writer will be Oscar nominee Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who snagged a nom alongside director/co-writer Sam Mendes for penning 1917. The DreamWorks/Universal release was an under-the-radar smash hit when it expanded into wide release this past January, earning $159 million domestic and $368 million worldwide on a $90 million budget. It’s exactly the kind of movie that should have inspired optimism in the validity of theatrical exhibition.

As much as 2019 looked like the year where Disney essentially took over the theatrical market, there were reasons for optimism that other studios and other movies could thrive alongside the Disney biggies. Mainstream studio programmers like Knives Out ($306 million worldwide on a $40 million budget), Hustlers ($159 million/$20 million), Little Women ($206 million/$40 million) and Ford v Ferrari ($225 million, albeit on a $98 million budget) bolstered the idea that cinema wasn’t just about comic book movies and Disney nostalgia. And while we all discussed the over-performance of Bad Boys For Life and Sonic the Hedgehog, along with the misfortunes of Birds of Prey, Dolittle and Onward, 1917 stealthily became one of the biggest-grossing war movies ever.

If 1917 counted as a 2020 release, which it does not since it opened in four theaters on Christmas Day, it would be this year’s second-biggest grosser here and abroad, between Bad Boys For Life ($204 million/$415 million) and Sonic the Hedgehog ($146 million/$306 million). But even among movies that platformed in late December and expanded wide in January, the Sam Mendes-directed, Sam Deakins-shot World War I movie is in rare company. Sans inflation, its $159 million domestic gross is behind only American Sniper ($350 million in 2014/2015), The Revenant ($183 million in 2015/2016), A Beautiful Mind ($171 million in 2001/2002), Chicago ($171 million in 2002/2003), and Hidden Figures ($169 million in 2016/2017).

Had it won Best Picture, it would have been the biggest domestic-grossing Best Picture winner since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($377 million) in 2003/2004. The “constructed as a single-take” film, which follows two World War I soldiers racing across enemy lines to deliver crucial intelligence that will prevent a massacre, is the second-biggest World War I-set movie ever, behind (understandably) Wonder Woman ($412.5 million/$821 million in 2017). In terms of inflation, it only trails The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ($9.2 million in 1921), Wonder Woman ($412 million in 2017), Lawrence of Arabia ($35 million in 1962), and Sergeant York ($16 million in 1941).

Its pretty highly ranked among all historical war flicks, behind Wonder Woman, Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, Dunkirk and Captain America: The First Avenger. And with around 16.9 million tickets sold in North America, its adjusted-for-inflation ranking is just below those films and Schindler’s List ($97 million in 1993). Considering the sheer number of World War II movies that get produced in a given year, partially because it’s easier to make “rah-rah” nationalistic war movies when dealing with a (comparatively) morally just global conflict, it’s doubly impressive that a World War I movie, one that doesn’t sugarcoat the pointless and arbitrary motivations and justifications for the wholesale slaughter, still performed better than almost any World War II movie.

Anyway, with Universal still committing to the theatrical experience, and with Krysty Wilson-Cairns nabbing a Star Wars co-writing gig, I thought it was worth noting that, amid the unexpected blockbuster highs and lows of the first two months of 2020, that one of the biggest grossers, in terms of money earned this year, was an R-rated, star-free, non-IP World War I thriller that vastly overpeformed in terms of realistic expectations. Universal ended 2019 and began 2020 with two infamous “point and gawk” stinkers, but in the middle was an unexpectedly robust performance for an unconventional “event” movie that was as much a “gotta see this in theaters” offering as No Time to Die or F9.