After suffering a major disappointment at the box office, director Steven Soderbergh is looking back on Black Bag‘s unfortunate performance. The Oscar-winning Soderbergh previously worked on Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Contagion (2011), and Logan Lucky (2017), and he is also the director of the upcoming 2025 movie The Christophers. Despite starring Michael Fᴀssbender and Pierce Brosnan, Black Bag proved to be a disappointment at the box office, earning just $36 million against a budget of around $50 million.
Soderbergh is still attempting to wrestle with Black Bag‘s failure, and he believes that it is a worrying sign for the rest of the industry. In an interview with The Independent, Soderbergh emphasized that the failure was “frustrating,” and it makes him fear for Hollywood’s future. While he believes that “fantasy spectacles” and “low-budget horror movies” can still find success, “mid-range” thrillers like Black Bag are collapsing. He hopes to preserve their place in theaters, but he is certainly concerned that audiences may not be interested. Check out his quote below:
This is the kind of film I made my career on. And if a mid-level budget, star-driven movie can’t seem to get people over the age of 25 years old to come out to theaters — if that’s truly a ᴅᴇᴀᴅ zone — then that’s not a good thing for movies. What’s gonna happen to the person behind me who wants to make this kind of film? I know for a fact, having talked to somebody who works at another studio, that the Monday after Black Bag opened, the conversation in the morning meeting was: “What does this mean when you can’t get a movie like this to perform?” And that’s frustrating. [Focus said the movie] will be fine and will turn a profit, [but] the bottom line is that we need to figure out a way to cultivate this audience for movies that are in this mid-range, that aren’t fantasy spectacles or low-budget horror movies. They’re movies for grown-ups, and those can’t just go away.
What Black Bag’s Failure Means For Hollywood
The Landscape Of Media Is Changing
Original properties have been in trouble since the pandemic began, as even critically renowned movies are struggling to receive much attention at the box office. Black Bag received incredible reviews, with ScreenRant‘s Mae Abdulbaki calling it a “fun yet debonair” movie that doubles as “wildly entertaining.” On Rotten Tomatoes, it earned a 96% Tomatometer score and a 70% Popcornmeter score, which should have been enough to draw audiences to theaters. Instead, it failed to draw attention and fell behind the action-comedy Novocaine in its opening weekend. Even Novocaine earned under $9 million that weekend.
A few key directors, notably Christopher Nolan and Ryan Coogler, can still draw attention to unknown properties, but they are few and far between.
Hollywood has been witnessing a mᴀssive change in interest from viewers, which is understandably upsetting major names in the industry. While major tent-pole franchises can succeed, unfamiliar original movies are no longer seeing success through star power alone. A few key directors, notably Christopher Nolan and Ryan Coogler, can still draw attention to unknown properties, but they are few and far between. In 2024, after all, every single movie in the top 10 box office chart was a sequel, adaptation, or prequel. Black Bag‘s failure is further proof that “mid-range” movies could continue to stumble.
Our Take On Black Bag’s Underperformance
It Wasn’t Enough Of An Event
Black Bag‘s disappointing returns are a worrying sign for all of Hollywood, given that the movie was generally renowned. It could still achieve profitability, as Black Bag will eventually be streaming online, but the old model of relying on a strong theatrical performance could be ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. The entire landscape of Hollywood is changing, and Soderbergh is rightfully worried that he and other directors could be left behind. This movie deserved more attention, and it will hopefully receive it when it heads to streaming.
Source: The Independent
