Down-List Also Rans

We know which movies are cleaning up at the box office, and many are animated. But what about some VFX and animated losers out in the marketplace? There must be a few, wouldn't you think?

Why yes! ...

Ghostbusters '16, now residing at #20, won't be a box office winner for floundering Sony. In its seventh weekend of release, it made $553,532, for a domestic total of $124,956,153. At first glance, this isn't a horrible total gross, but consedering the flick cost $144 million and has so far earned

Nudging up against Ghostbusters at #21, Ice Age: Collision Course took in a mere $510,412 in its sixth weekend of release for a sad and semi-pathetic domestic accumulation of $61,717,141. What's saved this latest Ie Age from disaster is the robust foreign gross of $305,551,385. The franchise has always done well overseas, and foreign takings are helping to make Collision Course a money-maker, despite the lacklustre box office across the fruited plain.

Spielberg's The BFG hunkers at #27, collecting $314,007 this past weekend. The mocap feature has earned $54,319,626 in nine weekends of release. Since the epic cost $140 million to produce and has made a slim $99,338,473 overseas, it won't be doing much for Diz Co.'s bottom line.

Then there's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, which has turned out to be one of producer Michael Bay's lesser efforts. In it's thirteenth week, it's made $44,214 for an underwhelming domestic total $81,987,616.

Lastly there's Alice Through the Looking Glass taking in $11,945 on its way to a weak-kneed U.S. gross of $77,037,635. It's done a little better overseas, earning $218,100,267, but Disney won't be bragging about this release in its annual stockholder report; it'll be kicking it under the rug and hopeing few will notice it got made.

Sad to say, even the occasional animated feature fails to launch. And some of the big visual effects tent poles? They end up collapsing the corporate canvas, rather than prop it up.