Box Office: ‘Dolittle’ Bombed Because Robert Downey Jr. Is Not A Movie Star

Like most modern "movie stars," Robert Downey Jr. isn't a draw outside of his marquee franchise. Audiences want to see him as Iron Man (and occasionally Sherlock Holmes), not as Doctor Dolittle.

Yes, Dolittle is going to be a costly bomb for Universal and friends. Yes, it’s embarrassing coming so soon after Cats, even if $29 million for the Fri-Mon frame likely would have been okay had Dolittle cost what Cats did ($95 million) instead of $175 million. There’s lots of “What went wrong?” takes to be had, and I’d like to again emphasize the madness of that budget. For reference, Universal “only” spent $170 million on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, that that’s after Jurassic World earned $1.671 billion worldwide. But a big issue, even if the budget had been closer to $100 million than $200 million, lies in its top-billed star. Simply put, outside of the Iron Man suit, Robert Downey Jr. is not and has never been a “butts in the seats” box office draw.

That I say Downey Jr. is not a “face on the poster” movie star in the vein of Leonardo DiCaprio or Denzel Washington is not a commentary on his value as a human being or his incontestable worth as an actor. But being a terrific actor and/or a genuinely good/nice person does not automatically translate into being a box office draw. Nor, and this is key, does starring in a hugely successful IP and/or character-specific franchise translate into audiences wanting to see you in any other movie outside of that franchise. Yes, audiences wanted to see Iron Man and the fact that Robert Downey Jr. was playing him made the project more interesting/enticing to general moviegoers. But audiences had comparatively little interest in Dolittle, and that it starred Downey Jr. wasn’t nearly enough of a draw.

We’ve seen this over and over. In the new normal that is Hollywood over the last decade, actors and actresses have been replaced by brands, IP and character-specific franchises. Chris Hemsworth is worth his weight in gold as Thor, but he’s not worth much in essentially any non-MCU movie he’s made since the first Thor back in 2011. In a prior time, his good looks, comic instincts, gravitas and onscreen charisma may well have made him a “face on the poster” draw in various original and/or high-concept studio programmers. But today, audiences who love Thor don’t show up (or barely showed up) for Rush, Blackhat, In the Heart of the Sea, 12 Strong and/or Huntsman: Winter’s War. You probably loved Black Panther, but did you see Chadwick Boseman’s 21 Bridges in theaters? Statistically speaking, you probably did not.

Movie stars have been essentially downgraded, especially in big-budget productions, into being added value elements in their own star vehicles. They are second fiddle to the characters whom they play. And they are now useless when playing “just a guy” or “just a woman.” That’s why Tom Hardy can have bomb (Lawless) after bomb (Child 44) and still be a huge draw AS Venom or AS Bane or AS Mad Max in Venom, The Dark Knight Rises and Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s why Will Smith as the Genie in Aladdin can top $1 billion worldwide, Gemini Man ends up below $200 million global and then Bad Boys For Life can open with $73 million in four days of domestic play. Even for the biggest stars in the world, the character or franchise comes first.

But Robert Downey Jr., prior to Iron Man making him proverbial king of the MCU, was never a genuine draw. His few outright hits (Back to School in 1986, Natural Born Killers in 1994, U.S. Marshals in 1998, The Shaggy DA in 2006, etc.) were supporting roles. His best movies (offhand, True Believer, Soapdish, Home for the Holidays, The Gingerbread Man, Wonder Boys, Zodiac, etc.) tended to be supporting turns or ensembles. His star vehicles (Air America, Chaplin, Heart and Souls, Two Girls and a Guy, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, etc.) tended to be critical darlings and/or under-performers. That’s not exactly a critcism, as Downey Jr., off-screen issues with addiction notwithstanding, was just a very respected and well-liked actor who tended to make bad movies watchable and good movies better. Not every great actor is a movie star.

This is only a problem if Hollywood, as it often does, sees a breakout success like Iron Man and thinks “Gee, Robert Downey Jr. is now a Tom Cruise-level movie star.” We saw this with Johnny Depp, who had several years of genuine bankability after Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (and Tim Burton fantasies like Sleepy Hollow and Alice in Wonderland) but otherwise was still “box office poison” who was generally only a big deal in Burton flicks and Jack Sparrow adventures. But save for Sherlock Holmes (which I will get to in a moment), Downey Jr.’s draw in movies like The Soloist ($38 million worldwide in 2009), The Judge ($76 million worldwide in 2014) and now Dolittle is clearly no stronger now than it was prior to becoming Tony Stark.

Heck, even Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, which was an ensemble film (for which he recieved an Oscar nomination) earned just $191 million on a $92 million budget in the summer of 2008. So when people hold up that movie as the kind of film Hollywood won’t make anymore, don’t be fooled. It’s not because “political correctness is killing comedy,” but because Tropic Thunder wasn’t really a bit hit even in a theatrical environment far more hospital to star-driven, high concept originals. To be fair, Todd Phillips’ Due Date, which teamed a post-Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. with a post-Hangover Zach Galifianakis, earned $211 million worldwide in 2010 on a $65 million budget. And, yeah, Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movies, which amounted to a strong “star+character” with a well-known IP/character whose translation into an action blockbuster format made sense.

They earned $524 million on a $90 million budget in 2009 and $545 million on a $120 million budget in 2011. Sherlock Holmes arguably capitalized on Iron Man in the same way that The Grudge (a $39 million opening in 2004) capitalized on being the first big Asian horror remake after The Ring two years prior, but success is success. That said, A) Sherlock Holmes cost 51% less than Dolittle and B) just because audiences wanted to see a blustery (but surprisingly good and true to the spirit of the character) Sherlock Holmes movie doesn’t mean they want to see Downey Jr. essentially playing that same character, or really one ironically closer to Dr. Gregory House (with an arc closer to Batman Beyond), in a “epic-ified” Doctor Dolittle movie that resembles an episode of Duck Tales.

Universal will survive the “disaster in relation to cost” miss that is Dolittle, thanks to both 1917 (which is now among three films, alongside Parasite and Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood) favored to win Best Picture next month and a stellar 2020 lineup that includes No Time to Die (which Universal is distributing overseas), Fast & Furious 9, Trolls: World Tour, Minions: The Rise of Gru and Halloween Kills. Heck, I’ll argue they’ll pose a real challenge to Disney in 2021, when they’ll release the “final” chapters of Fast & Furious, Jurassic World and Halloween alongside Sing 2 and Wicked. Downey Jr. will survive too, not just because he’s amassed around 3% of Tony Stark’s alleged $12.4 billion net worth. But he’s not a butts in the seats movie star outside of Iron Man movies.

I’ll say the same about Chris Hemsworth, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot and Tom Hardy outside of their marquee superhero roles. Brendan Fraser got $12.5 million for The Mummy Returns but wasn’t dumb enough to try to get that kind of paycheck for anything else. Matthew Broderick used the pre-release heat around Godzilla to get $5 million for Inspector Gadget, presumably knowing he’d never command that kind of salary again. Certain actors are worth “it” for flagship roles, but most aren’t outside of marquee franchises. So, no, Robert Downey Jr. wasn’t worth $20 million for Dolittle although he’s arguably worth big bucks for Sherlock Holmes 3. There’s a lot that went wrong with Dolittle. One such unforced error was presuming Downey Jr. was a big enough draw outside of the MCU to justify a massive budget for a Doctor Dolittle movie.