Looking at “The Covenant,” it opened to just $6.3 million on this same weekend last year and never recovered, topping out with just $21 million worldwide against a sizable $55 million budget. The modern war film was released by MGM and stars Jake Gyllenhaal. Again, we’re talking about a movie that was met with very good reviews and an A-list movie star leading the way. The saving grace here is that MGM is now owned by Amazon, so the fact that Prime Video ends up with a crowd-pleasing war film when all’s said and done helps. But the underperformance of original films like these doesn’t help theaters or audiences who want non-franchise fare.
As for Ritchie’s latest effort, “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is based on recently declassified files of the British War Department and is inspired by true events. It tells the story of the first special forces organization formed during WWII by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a small group of military officials, including “James Bond” author Ian Fleming. The top-secret unit is tasked with taking on a risky mission against the Nazis. The cast includes Henry Cavill (“The Witcher”), Alan Ritchson (“Reacher”), Henry Golding (“Crazy Rich Asians”) and Eiza Gonzalez (“3 Body Problem”).
Once more, we’re looking at a movie that was met with solid reviews and landed an A- CinemaScore, indicating that those who did see “Warfare” really dug it. So it’s not as though Ritchie is out here making bad movies that aren’t making money. He’s out here making well-liked movies that are being largely ignored by the moviegoing public. It’s a real shame in many ways. The director isn’t over-spending on $100 million movies that have no chance of making their money back. He’s making upper-level, mid-budget movies with appealing ensemble casts. Yet, three times in a row with very different movies, they’ve failed to deliver financially.