The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2015–2017
The Book of Henry: Trevorrow's $10M film that grossed $4.6M
Focus Features' $10M drama grossed $4.6M worldwide — one of the worst returns of 2017, from the director of Jurassic World.
Focus Features · 2017-06-16
What happened
The Book of Henry — a family drama directed by Colin Trevorrow, coming off Jurassic World's record-breaking success, and produced by Sidney Kimmel Entertainment — cost $10 million. Focus Features released it on June 16, 2017, expecting the director's name to carry a modest hit.
It grossed $4.6 million worldwide. Critics were scathing — Vulture called it 'a unique kind of terrible' — and the film's jarring plot twists and tonal shifts became the story. The film was not a financial success by any reading: it returned less than half its budget.
The failure mattered more than its size: Trevorrow's next project was Star Wars: Episode IX, from which he was fired months later, and The Book of Henry's reviews were widely cited as evidence the studio had misjudged his abilities — a small bomb that became a career verdict.
Why it happened
- The script was the liability: the film's wildly shifting tone — from family drama to revenge thriller — repelled audiences and critics alike, and a $10M budget could not buy a coherent story.
- The release was designed for the director's name, not the film: Focus Features positioned it on Trevorrow's Jurassic World reputation.
- The lesson was priced into Trevorrow's career: the failure followed him to Episode IX, and the film's reviews became part of the case that fired him — a small-budget miss with a franchise-sized echo.
The lesson
A small bomb can be a career verdict: The Book of Henry's $10M loss was tiny, but the reviews followed Trevorrow to Star Wars and helped cost him the job — reputation is a budget item too.
Sources
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