Saved by China

"A"chinese guy?

It's difficult to find a big movie (one that's either a part of a franchise or a start of one) that managed to at least cover its production budget with the domestic box office, so it's not surprising they rely on the foreign markets. Look at this year's big/bigger releases, only the Black Panther is a success looking solely on its domestic gross and it's safe to say until the next Marvel release we won't have any other movies that will join the club.

Maze Runner - not that big of a budget but it seemed like a franchise nobody asked for, kinda like the Divergent. Budget 62M, domestic 58M. Not that big worldwide too.

Red Sparrow - again not a huge budget but with the lead star a bigger gross was expected. Budget 69M, 44M domestically and only 122M worldwide.

A Wrinkle In Time - 100M budget, currently at 77M domestically but worldwide only 15M. I guess it still has other territories to open but still this is a flop. Don't know who asked for this movie to be made, its trailer looked bad and the movie seems to follow that.

Tomb Raider - 94M budget, only 45M domestically (not the final number of course but too small none the less), decent worldwide with 169M but the foreign market is not an excuse. This is a start of a franchise with a lead that's supposedly a big star (though I can't see how winning an Oscar and making "art" movies like The Danish Girl, Ex Machina, and non-artsy movies that have a potential and the budget to be blockbusters like The Man From Uncle, all of which end up being flops, makes her a star) and it's a known name in general public due to the video game and Jolie's flicks. Because of all that you can't play the saved-by-the-foreign-market card because this should earn a healthy amount of money on both fronts. Heck even The Cradle Of Life will earn more domestically! True Cradle earned far less worldwide but it's not fair to say Chinese movie market is the same now as it was 15 years ago.

You could add the Pacific Rim to this group though it was obvious if it weren't for the Chinese market it wouldn't have been filmed.

Also Ready Player One, movies usually earn double of their opening weekend and even if it makes 60M that makes 120M which is nowhere near its 175M budget.

Doesn't work that way. Yes, it made some money overseas, but the US Distributor makes a far smaller share of the box office from overseas films. If you assume half of the foreign B.O., then you're looking at 106 million, and adding the 56 million of the US B.O., you're looking at a total of 162 million. With a budget of 94 million, and even as little as 2/3 that for marketing, you're already at around 156 million, meaning that it hardly made anything at all. 6 million is not boffo box office by any stretch of the imagination.

The lead was just NOT a good fit for Lara Croft, and the viewers stayed away as a result. Lara is expected to be a character with great T&A, and that's what people expect to see. If Hollywood wants to be SJW's then they need to stop making movies like this completely.

..Joe