“The Mummy” has been a major flop this year - and Universal Pictures is likely to cancel its plans to develop “Dark Universe” movies. It is very unfortunate that the reboot, starring Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Courtney Vance, Jake Jonson, Javier Botet, Marwan Kenzari and Russell Crowe, unraveled in its debut with only $30 million.
Last month, Universal Pictures announced the names of its interconnected movies. It aims to develop a lot of monster movies, connected with “The Mummy” – now we feel that the studio won’t continue developing the “Dark Universe” movies as “The Mummy” could not impress the audiences and critics.
Universal’s plans
“The Mummy” has been developed with a budget of $120 million, and hit the theaters on June 9, 2017. So far, the film has grossed only $56 million at the global box office, which we can never expect from a Tom Cruise movie. The totals are far from a monstrous start for a summer movie that cost Universal over $70 million in marketing and social media promotions.
The studio reserves the right to step back from the “Dark Universe” film series. We feel that it is better for Universal to skip the idea of developing monster movies. Instead, it should either produce comedy films or romantic movies.
Executives at Universal told Yahoo that the “Dark Universe” films are interconnected with the Tom Cruise movie - the failure of one movie doesn't mean they will cancel the plans of new monster films.
It means they may continue developing the “Dark Universe” film series, but nothing is confirmed.
“Dark Universe” is a continuation of a love story the studio had with its monsters. The first film is expected to be released on February 14, 2019 -- the pressure is on, and Universal will need a lot more time to plan the things.
It will work hard to improve the visual effects, tone, and storyline of its future films as “The Mummy” is criticized for these three elements.
What’s next?
Universal is heavily touting “Bride of Frankenstein,” directed by Bill Condon. This film is scheduled to be released on February 10, 2018. Condon and Universal believe that “Bride of Frankenstein” will touch the $1 billion mark at the box office.
The studio has no plans to develop an “Invisible Man” film with Johnny Depp, and is in talks with Dwayne Johnson and Angelina Jolie for “Dr. Jekyll.”
On Rotten Tomatoes, “The Mummy” got an approval rating of 34% based on 402 reviews, while Metacritic has assigned it a score of 43 out of 100 based on 79 critics.
