Chris Hemsworth cant open a non-Marvel movie to save his life
For the past two weeks, The Jungle Book has been at the top of the North American box office. I would not have predicted that, but I’m from a generation that grew up on the cartoon. I guess parents are just desperate to find quality, family-friendly movies for their kids. But this was the opening weekend for The Huntsman: Winter’s War, a film which looked utterly nonsensical (I said that repeatedly). And as it turns out, American audiences couldn’t be bothered to try to figure it out, or even care one way or the other. The Huntsman has “flopped.” Per THR:
Without Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Universal’s The Huntsman: Winter’s War flopped at the North American box office over the weekend, grossing $20.1 million from 3,792 theaters despite a net budget of $115 million…. The Huntsman took in $32.1 million from 64 markets for a sluggish foreign total of $80.2 million (it began rolling out internationally two weeks ago) and global cume of $100.3 million. The Huntsman debuted in China to $11.1 million, behind The Jungle Book and a local film.
In the 2012 film Snow White and the Huntsman, Stewart starred as Snow White. Instead of making a sequel to that pic, Universal decided to go in a different direction, banking on Chris Hemsworth’s star power, as well as that of Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain. The move didn’t pay off. The Huntsman came in more than 64 percent behind the domestic debut of Snow White and the Huntsman ($56.2 million), and marks the latest disappointment for Hemsworth, who, outside of playing Thor, hasn’t clicked as a leading man. Both Blackhat and In the Heart of the Sea were big-budget misses, while Rush stalled in the U.S.
I kind of love that Chris Hemsworth is getting most of the blame for this. I would not have predicted that either, but it seems like Chris Hemsworth is NOT the movie star Hollywood thinks he is. The only character he’s played that anyone cares about is Thor and even Chris is starting to realize that. That being said, Chris didn’t do a ton of promotion for this film. He did his job, for sure (no “largely absent Hemsworth” this time around), but it felt like Charlize Theron was the face of this movie, especially since she made a high-profile move to be paid the same as Hemsworth for the film. I’m just saying, just because THR is taking a swipe at Chris Hemsworth’s leading man status, doesn’t mean Hollywood executives won’t put the blame on Charlize. And Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt. Like, I would imagine there’s a meeting happening somewhere in LA right now where someone is saying, “See? I told you we shouldn’t make a movie with three women, it was a recipe for disaster! Let’s greenlight another Chris Hemsworth-led movie!”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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