The first trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon dropped yesterday and it looks really cool. For years, the only movies we had were stills of stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone sitting at a table. finally Watching a movie longer is really exciting. This is directed by Martin Scorsese. <아이리시맨> It is the first movie since then, and I think it is the first adult drama to succeed at the box office after the movie was released.
While the film has rebounded in many ways over the past year, to others, the carefree days of 2019 seem impossibly distant. That year we got several blockbuster hits that weren’t franchise films. Worldwide <작은 아씨들>Silver $218.9 million; <포드 v 페라리>$225.5 million; <허슬러>is $157.6 million; <기생충>Silver $263.1 million; <나이브스 아웃>recorded $311.9 million. Above them all is Once Upon a Time… There was Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Quentin Tarantino’s alternate history of Manson’s murder earned $374.6 million in recognition of the director’s name and a star-studded cast. Killers of the Flower Moon is a different, less entertaining beast, but I think it has a chance to bring adult moviegoers back to theaters in a way that it hasn’t yet been post-corona.
Killers of the Flower Moon is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood… Because it shares two important points with First off, it’s the long-awaited next film from the beloved Hollywood director with a strong box-office history. Not all Scorsese films are hits, but only in the 21st century has he hit the box office with The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, and The Wolf of Wall Street. The second thing Killers of the Flower Moon has in common with OUATIH and all of Scorsese’s blockbusters over the past 20 years is the presence of one of the biggest American movie stars, Leonardo Dicaprio, not Tom Cruise.
Since the man doesn’t do that many movies, it’s easy to forget what a huge box office draw Leo is. Do you remember the Revenant? Which movie won him an Oscar in 2015? I saw it when I was 21 and still in college, and now I am 29 and have been out of college for 7 years. Killers of the Flower Moon is his third film since then (OUATIH, Don’t Look Up). Dicaprio’s presence made a huge ($533 million) hit for nearly three hours of film about a man trying to survive in the wilderness. If anyone wants to bring adult drama back to life, it is him.
Of course, for Killers of the Flower Moon to succeed, it will have to cross a fairly high threshold. It cost $200 million to make, so it needs to make at least $400 million to be profitable. That’s a lot of money, and only superheroes and sequels have made that much money since the pandemic began.
Killers of the Flower Moon, on the other hand, was largely unsanctioned to turn a profit. Apple is putting it out in theaters, but it’s a rare move for a streamer and seems to be driven more by Scorsese and DiCaprio pushing for a theatrical release than Apple’s own interests. Instead, like The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon is more likely Apple’s attempt to gain fame and recognition by writing hefty checks to some of the most acclaimed living American filmmakers.
So, it doesn’t really need to be a huge box office hit to achieve what Apple wants it to be. Still, I don’t think you can use it unconditionally. Older audiences are slowly returning to theaters, and while films like Book Club: The Next Chapter and 80 for Brady aren’t as connected as pre-Covid ones, there are signs of life. A Man Called Otto earned nearly $112.6 million thanks to Tom Hanks’ status as a box office hit among older audiences, and The Whale’s success further shows that there’s an audience for star-driven dramas. As a whole, moviegoers got their moment back in theaters with Top Gun: Maverick, so I wouldn’t rule out Killers as a film that could bring audiences back for the drama.