Fortune Magazine is doing a three-part look at the Sony hack from last fall. In Part one (posted today) Peter Elkind talks a bit about Sony’s disappointment in Spidey’s box office fizzle.
For those of you always saying “How can a movie that makes $700 million be a disappointment?!?,” pay close attention. Here’s where Forbes backs up pretty much what I’ve always said about ASM2’s disappointing performance.
Meanwhile the pressures at Sony Pictures intensified. Sony was counting on big box-office numbers from the latest installment of Spider-Man, its biggest franchise, whose previous four films had grossed a combined $3.25 billion. (Lynton invited Loeb to the New York premiere but instructed his staff to make sure that the investor’s seats be “nowhere near Amy or me.”) But at $709 million in worldwide ticket sales, Amazing Spider-Man 2 disappointed; Sony had projected $865 million. An outright flop came two months later, with the comedy Sex Tape. “I think it kills the year,” Lynton emailed Pascal, as the depressing results arrived. “ We keep putting our heads in the sand. I fear that this may just be one too many.”
I will keep an eye out for any more Spidey info that might be coming in the next two parts.
—George Berryman!
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