Soderbergh On “Black Bag” Box-Office Woes

Up until “Sinners” debuted, the best-reviewed wide release film of the year so far was director Steven Soderbergh’s espionage thriller “Black Bag” starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett.

But whereas “Sinners” had strong box-office, “Black Bag” was a commercial dud – the $50+ million budgeted feature pulled in just $38.6 million worldwide at a time when there wasn’t much competition at the box-office.

Recently, the filmmaker spoke with British news outlet The Independent to discuss his disappointment with the film’s performance and the dwindling audiences in cinemas, putting it down to over 25s simply not going to the movies anymore for this style of mid-budget adult drama fare:

“This is the kind of film I made my career on, and if a mid-level budget, star-driven movie can’t seem to get people over the age of 25 years old to come out to theaters – if that’s truly a dead zone – then that’s not a good thing for movies. What’s gonna happen to the person behind me who wants to make this kind of film?

I know for a fact, having talked to somebody who works at another studio, that the Monday after ‘Black Bag’ opened, the conversation in the morning meeting was: ‘What does this mean when you can’t get a movie like this to perform?’ And that’s frustrating.”

Soderbergh says he’s been told by Focus Features that despite the underperformance, the film “will be fine and will turn a profit”. That said, he also adds that some of his biggest successes like “Erin Brockovich” and “Traffic” wouldn’t get made in today’s climate.

“Black Bag” is now availablr as a PVOD title on digital.

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