The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2020–2022
Babylon: Damien Chazelle's $80M Hollywood epic opened to $3.5M
Paramount's $78–80M ode to Hollywood opened to $3.5M, grossed $63.4M worldwide, and Deadline counted an $87.4M net loss.
Paramount Pictures · 2022-12-23
What happened
Babylon — Damien Chazelle's three-hour ode to Hollywood's transition from silent to sound film, starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie — cost $78–80 million and was released by Paramount on December 23, 2022, in the prime Christmas corridor. Chazelle had just come off the Oscar-winning La La Land and First Man.
It debuted to $3.5 million over the weekend ($5.3 million over four days), finishing fourth — one of the worst openings of the holiday season. It closed with $15.4 million domestically and $48 million overseas, a worldwide total of $63.4 million against its budget.
Deadline's annual cost analysis calculated the net loss at $87.4 million, one of the biggest bombs of 2022. The failure was striking because the film had everything Hollywood usually respects — an auteur director, stars, and a subject Hollywood loves — and the audience simply did not show up.
Why it happened
- The subject was for the industry, not the audience: a three-hour film about 1920s Hollywood excess had no hook, and the Christmas release asked moviegoers to choose it over Avatar: The Way of Water.
- The runtime and tone were a festival film in a commercial slot: at three hours with scatological set pieces, Babylon was made for awards voters, but the mixed reviews ended its awards run.
- The greenlight was auteur privilege: Chazelle's Oscar pedigree bought an $80M blank check for a passion project.
The lesson
Awards pedigree is not audience demand: Chazelle's name bought an $80M passion project about Hollywood that Hollywood itself declined to watch.
Sources
- Deadline — The Biggest Box Office Bombs Of 2022: Deadline's Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament
- Wikipedia — Babylon (2022 film)
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