Ever since 2011’s The Fighter, David O. Russell has been a critical and awards favorite, with a total of 12 Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. Now, with the supreme box office flop of his latest movie, Amsterdam, his streak may be over.
Amsterdam hit #3 with just $6.5 million this past weekend. According to Deadline, with a budget of $80 million, a projected worldwide gross of $35 million and another $70 million going into prints and advertising, Amsterdam is looking to lose around $100 million.
The growing cost of Amsterdam has been attributed to a number of factors, including a location change and a delay in the movie’s production due to Covid-19, thus ballooning the budget up more than 60% from its initial greenlit $50 million cost.
The numbers can get a little complicated, but what’s simple is that people simply didn’t show up at the movie theaters to see Amsterdam. Is it because there was no previous property attached? That it wasn’t part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Or didn’t have Tom Cruise or dinosaurs or minions? Certainly one of the most impressive line-ups of the year–with a cast of Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Robert De Niro, and many more among the ensemble–should have pushed more ticket sales.
Amsterdam was hit with lousy reviews at the outset and the movie currently has a 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the worst-reviewed movie of David O. Russell’s career and the only “rotten” movie on the websites. (We won’t count 2015’s Accidental Love, as Russell left the production and credit was given to a pseudonym.)
Did you see Amsterdam? Why do you think it did so poorly? What does the future hold for David O. Russell? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.