It’s been two years and change since the pandemic first devastated the theatrical industry, and business has yet to come close to approaching pre-COVID levels. While big budget blockbusters, sequels, and franchise fare have been performing admirably, the adult-skewing mid budget movie has suffered more than most.
To put the situation into perspective, the highest-grossing straightforward drama to hit theaters (that isn’t based on a pre-existing property) since March 2020 is Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, which topped out with a box office haul of $153 million.
However, producer William Sherak argues that there’s still a place on the big screen for productions that don’t break the budgetary bank, something he’s discovered first-hand after being involved in the successful sequel/reboot hybrod Scream. Speaking to Variety, Sherak also named Michael Bay’s incoming Ambulance as another title capable of breaking the mold.
“The teams at both Universal and Paramount, when they planted the flag and said these will be theatrical movies, they turned on those marketing machines. And even though they are not the size of Marvel movies, when you see the campaigns behind both of them, you feel like they are big, big events that you are supposed to see in a movie theater. When you’re in the of mid-budget range, your cash-break number is such a lower number where I think we also have to redefine success, right? Success no longer has to be $800 million at the box office with a mid-budget movie.”
On the other side of the coin, Scream‘s global earnings only came to $140 million (which is still respectable and plenty profitable given the $24 million budget), while the $40 million Ambulance is expected to open in third place this weekend behind Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Morbius, both of which are big IP-driven projects, so we’re not out of the woods quite yet.