Robert Rodriguez's Hypnotic Is Instantly One Of The Biggest Box Office Bombs Of 2023
Typically, when a big director like Robert Rodriguez releases an expensive movie in theaters with an A-list star like Ben Affleck, people tend to notice. That was not the case with "Hypnotic," however. The mind-bending sci-fi flick quietly arrived in wide release in theaters this past weekend, though you'd be forgiven for not noticing. To that end, the movie only pulled in $2.35 million on more than 2,100 screens. No two ways about it, this is instantly one of the most high-profile box office bombs of 2023.
Rodriguez, the director of blockbusters such as "Spy Kids" and "Alita: Battle Angel," was behind the camera for "Hypnotic," which carries a pretty sizable $65 million budget. Given the lackluster opening weekend, it has almost no shot of turning a profit as big movies such as "Fast X" and "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" will make it pretty much disappear in the coming weeks. It certainly didn't help that "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" had a very big second weekend, taking the lion's share of the attention.
With a budget like that, Rodriguez and the various investors (more on that in a moment) would need something like $120 million globally just to break even. Now, they have to hope that various international sales rights, VOD, and other ancillary revenue streams can bail them out. It's going to be tough sledding. The film focuses on a detective who becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program while investigating a string of reality-bending crimes.
What went wrong?
There is no amount of narrative twisting or damage control that can change a narrative for a bomb this big. Case in point, this is the worst opening ever for both Affleck and Rodriguez, respectfully. And Affleck has been on quite the hot streak, with "Air" becoming an instant Oscar front-runner in recent weeks. The only plus side is this movie hardly made a blip on anyone's radar so, in terms of long-term damage to Affleck's good name, it's probably minimal. Similarly, Rodriguez was dealt a bad hand and may come out somewhat unscathed, relative to suffering a flop this hard that is.
As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, Solstice Studios originally backed "Hypnotic" for U.S. distribution, as well as handling international sales. Unfortunately, Solstice imploded during the pandemic, leaving the mostly finished, very expensive film in limbo. Rodriguez had several stops and starts thanks to the pandemic, which greatly inflated the budget. It was a very bad situation. The filmmaker screened an in-progress cut of the film during SXSW in March, which essentially served as the kickoff for the awareness campaign. Small-time distributor Ketchup Entertainment came on board, but not much can be done with mere weeks to launch a big marketing campaign.
To that end, the marketing was close to non-existent, with a trailer arriving online and some advertising on social media and whatnot. But it was nowhere near the level of campaign needed for a movie of this size. Audience awareness was clearly low. To further hurt matters, the film was largely panned by critics, holding a mere 38% on Rotten Tomatoes. That won't get the job done. In the end, all involved will probably need to just do what they can to recoup as much of the investment as they can.
"Hypnotic" is in theaters now.