The Adam Driver-led 65 had a chance to be Sony's next big franchise starter, but the dinosaur movie has unfortunately bombed at the box office for several reasons. The sci-fi actioner follows Mills (Driver) on Earth 65 million years ago, who has to defend himself and a young girl from Tyrannosaurus rexes and many other iconic dinosaurs. However, despite this seemingly thrilling premise, the film has failed to capture its audience's imagination.
65 was directed by filmmaking duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who helped create the hugely successful a great alternative to Jurassic Park, for instance, by being the only other modern dinosaur series. The 2023 release had all the makings of a blockbuster; a shooting budget of $91 million (via CBR), a high concept, and Driver in the main role. Unfortunately, the film had anything but a strong opening weekend, and unless it has a 0% drop off in its second week at the box office, it'll be another failure for Sony. Here's why, for all it's unique attributes, 65 bombed at the box office.
6 65 Had Huge Competition At the Box Office
65 was originally scheduled for release in April 2022, almost a full year before its actual release, but Sony didn't want to compete with Creed III, which was undoubtedly going to have a strong second week too.
Scream VI was 65's major threat. While 65 is rated PG-13 compared to Scream VI's R rating, meaning more people are able to see it, Scream VI has so much momentum behind it. The movie is part of a long-running and beloved horror franchise, whereas 65 isn't part of any existing property. And it follows Champions. While that wasn't a major threat, it's still yet another film with which 65 had to compete.
The dinosaur movie still had to compete with Creed III in its second weekend too. The bulk of a movie's box office gross comes from the opening week, and then there's generally a drop-off of around 60% in its second week. But due to the positive word of mouth about Creed III, the film's strong critical reviews, and repeat viewings by fans, the boxing movie was clearly going to have a strong second weekend. Creed III broke five box office opening weekend records, and it achieved a milestone in its second weekend too, being just one of two 2023 movies to $100 million domestically (via Box Office Mojo). All this was bad news for 65's chances at the box office.
5 65 Had Almost No Marketing
While 65 did have some marketing, it got nowhere near the amount of promotion that a movie this costly usually has. Beyond a few posters and trailers, Sony barely put any money into marketing 65 whatsoever, which didn't help, considering that it had so much competition. The lack of marketing for a mid-budget movie generally means that the studio doesn't have any faith in the film. Marketing the movie means spending millions of dollars, which would essentially be pointless if the movie gets bad reviews and poor audience reception. Sony obviously thought that the movie still wouldn't make enough money even if the studio did heavily market it, and therefore didn't lend 65 the necessary .
4 65 Received Mostly Negative Reviews
Though the critical reception isn't the actor's fault, 65 has the worst Rotten Tomatoes score in Driver's career. The film sits at a "rotten" 38% on Rotten Tomatoes. Hannah Strong called it "entirely forgettable, partially nonsensical sci-fi fare" (via Little White Lies), and Travis Hopson described "a repetitive, frequently dull story that will have you counting down the minutes until it goes extinct" (via Punch-Drunk Critics). Sony didn't lift the review embargo until the day of the movie's release, which is a catastrophic sign, as it means that the studio knows it'll get bad reviews and wants to keep that information away from potential viewers for as long as possible.
3 65's Title Is Confusing
While this rule might not apply to low-budget or arthouse movies, there's no art in movie titles and the name of a film is simply another marketing tool for studios. A perfect example is Knives Out. 65's title could have been a huge reason why nobody showed up to see it in theatres, as it's simply a number and gives nothing away. And while it alludes to the movie's 65-million-year-old setting, nobody could possibly know that from the title, especially when Driver is holding a hi-tech weapon in the poster. This represented a missed opportunity to hook audiences in to a fun, original premise.
2 Adam Driver Isn't A Bankable Actor
Movies like 65 generally feature actors who are box office draws and can guarantee an audience. However, while Driver is well-known and starred in the latest 65 was a huge risk for Driver, casting him was just as much of a risk for Sony, and the risk didn't pay off. And outside of Driver, 65 has very few characters and there's no other star power.
1 65 Could Still Be Successful On Streaming
Given that there's such a short timeframe between movies' theatrical releases and when they're available to stream, along with the negative reviews, potential viewers may have decided to wait to watch 65 until its streaming release. Where some movies are given huge theatrical windows, other films are thrown onto streaming platforms extremely shortly after their opening weekends if they underperformed or totally bombed. So it likely won't be long until Morbius have been hugely successful on Netflix, 65 could still blow up on streaming and finally find its audience there.
