Actual Domestic Profitability

Since I last wrote about it here, several other movies have achieved actual domestic profitability.

The dance drama Step Up was produced for $12 million and went on to make $65 million domestically. Little Miss Sunshine was acquired by Fox Searchlight for $8 million and has grossed $58 million to date. And Jackass Number Two, Saw III, and Borat all achieved actual profitability in their first few days of release.

Movies that have come close enough to be considered actually profitable include The Illusionist, John Tucker Must Die, and, unfortunately, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

Again, what interests me here are studio movies made for a reasonable amount of money that end up turning a profit domestically. I'm not going to claim that Disney lost money on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest or that The Da Vinci Code didn't turn a profit (in fact, in pure terms the latter was probably the year's most profitable movie). But the primary reason why such movies are made is to achieve worldwide success, and to me that kind of success is pretty dull.

Regarding "event" movies, everyone knows that Poseidon tanked. But to the list of bombs I would add Superman Returns, Miami Vice, The Wild, and Lady in the Water. Even taking into account worldwide grosses, each of these movies missed actual profitability by more than $100 million. (Anyone notice that three of the five movies mentioned in this paragraph were put out by Warner Bros.? Ouch!)