I’m Devastated By This $104M Sci-Fi Movie’s Box Office Failure, But There’s One Huge Upside

I went to see a sci-fi movie in 2023 that I was sure had enormous potential as a franchise starter, and although it crashed and burned at the box office, I’ve since managed to find a silver lining. While the production didn’t come close to breaking into 2023’s best blockbusters, I still found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I would have enjoyed more from the same world, but there’s a surprisingly big advantage to the movie’s box office failure.

The 2023 movie doesn’t belong to the category of sci-fi robot horror movies, but the plot’s focus on advanced AI certainly places it in an adjacent field. I love stories that revolve around artificial lifeforms, and being a fan of the movie’s director also made me especially excited to see it. I’m very grateful for the production being released, but I think I’ll always have a quiet yearning for a sequel that’s very unlikely to arrive – that may be a good thing, though.

The Creator Was Very Underrated & Deserved To Be A Bigger Success

Gareth Edwards’ 2023 sci-fi flop had the makings of a profitable project

2023’s The Creator, by Godzill a and Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, passed by without making much of an impact on the movie industry. After I saw the movie upon release, I was convinced the sci-fi epic would be a big talking point for months to come. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Instead, the movie was relegated to a footnote in 2023’s movie collection. While it received respectable reviews, its office takings prove there just wasn’t enough interest.

Surprisingly, The Creator‘s budget was just $80 million. In the context of big sci-fi blockbusters, that’s not a huge amount. For comparison, the budget for 2014’s Interstellar was almost twice that of The Creator, and almost a decade earlier. Still, The Creator managed to immerse me completely with its detailed worldbuilding, stunning visuals, and thought-provoking message. While The Creator‘s ending could have been better, and the plot overall could have been stronger in parts, I don’t think the movie’s shortcomings were significant enough to deserve the failure it experienced.

Why The Creator Underperformed At The Box Office

2023’s busy October contributed to The Creator’s failure

The Creator premiered in North America on September 29, 2023. So, the majority of the movie’s theatrical run fell in the following month. Unfortunately, October 2023 was a crowded month for movies, and many of them had a much bigger pull than The Creator. Gareth Edwards’ movie was competing against the likes of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, The Exorcist: Believer, Saw X, and even PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie – all of which were far more profitable than The Creator ended up being. So, one of the most likely explanations is that The Creator just got lost in the mix.

Interestingly, The Creator was originally scheduled for release on October 6, 2023. While I don’t think it’s likely that the movie would have been any more successful if the original premiere date had remained in place, the movie industry can be an unusual beast. It’s possible that bringing the movie forward by a week affected The Creator‘s impact, but there’s no way of knowing.

Box Office Mojo reports that The Creator made $104,272,136 worldwide. On a budget of $80m, this may look like the movie succeeded and even turned a profit. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. In general, a movie needs to at least double its budget in order to break even. This is because marketing and other costs tend to be roughly the same as the budget for the movie itself. So, The Creator would have had to make $160m at the box office to make its money back. However, it fell very short of this milestone.

How The Creator’s Box Office Letdown Worked In Its Favor

The Creator becoming a hit could have resulted in an unplanned sequel

Speaking with SciFi Now, Gareth Edwards was asked if he’d ever consider a follow-up to his 2023 movie. The director’s reply was essentially a resounding no, and supported his answer by saying his “Favorite part of the story is the end.” He described The Creator as a standalone project and confirmed that he didn’t have a plan to make a sequel. On the other hand, he also suggested that if the studio commissioned a second movie, he would “Happily take that problem,” despite it being a “Difficult thing to deal with.” Thankfully, that never happened.

While I’m sure there’s a possibility that a Creator sequel could have brought more eyes to what would have been an emerging franchise, such a move would have compromised Edward’s original vision. As it stands, The Creator can be enjoyed in isolation. The beginning is the beginning, and the end is the end. If the movie had performed just well enough to earn a sequel, then there’s no guarantee a second installment would be successful enough for the improvised saga to continue. So, The Creator‘s failure could be viewed as a fortunate scenario that protects the movie’s integrity.

Sources: Box Office Mojo, SciFi Now