Few actors in cinema history have been as successful as Robert Downey Jr. has, and even though people thought Marvel was crazy for taking a chance on the troubled performer, he proved the studio right by being the perfect choice to play Iron Man. Low and behold, Downey helped birth the MCU and became a legend in his own right.
These days, the acclaimed actor is officially done with the MCU, and he has been working on establishing himself outside of his work as Iron Man. His first movie after Marvel, however, did not get things off to a great start, and it has been speculated that the film could have lost $100 million.
Let’s take a look back at this disaster from Downey.
Dolittle Was His First Post-Marvel Movie
The Marvel Cinematic Universe was a godsend for Robert Downey Jr., and his time as Iron Man made him incredibly rich and one of the most popular actors of the era. Sure, he had other successful films during this time, but it was the MCU that kept him at the top. So, there was a lot of anticipation for Dolittle, which was set to be his first post-MCU offering.
Leading up to this point, Robert Downey Jr. had already proven that he could thrive in virtually any role. Most movie fans will think back to the Eddie Murphy movies when they think of the character Dr. Dolittle, but based on the previews alone, this movie was going to be something completely different.
Not only was the film going to be a drastic change from what fans saw with Eddie Murphy, but this movie was also going to have an outrageous budget, as well. According to Box Office Mojo, the budget for Dolittle was a staggering $175 million, and this was before advertising costs come into play. This is a ton of money to invest in any movie, let alone one based on a character that most had forgotten about.
However, the studio clearly felt that Robert Downey Jr. alone would be able to corral people into theaters around the world.
It Got Bad Reviews Bombed At The Box Office
Unfortunately for the studio, their hopes of piecing together a blockbuster smash with the bankable Downey was soon put to rest. There are a number of things that a film needs to succeed, and good reviews and word of mouth are up there in terms of importance. Sadly, Dolittle was not getting reviews that helped it in any way.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, Dolittle is currently sitting at a paltry 14% from critics. Now, the film does hold a 76% from fans, meaning that there were people out there that actually enjoyed what the critics hated. However, this was not enough to overcome the bad reviews and the bloated budget.
The movie was able to make $245 million at the box office, which would not be too bad of a number had it not been for the astronomical budget. This was not the type of box office gross that the studio was hoping for, and media outlets were quick to cover this disaster of a movie. Critics shredded it, no one saw it, and in the blink of an eye, Robert Downey Jr. had laid an egg after leaving the MCU.
It Lost Up To $100 Million
There are a number of different figures that have been proposed for Dolittle’s loss, and The Wrap is one of a few sites that indicate that the film could have lost up to $100 million for the studio. Clearly, name power alone was not enough to get past the terrible reviews that the film had received.
Seth Rogen was brought in to help fix the script early on after the studio quickly learned that there was quite a bit that needed to be taken care of. After taking part for some time, Rogen would eventually depart the project.
“They made it seem like they were selling the studio an actual, functional film but they did not. They sold them like the schematics of a movie that when built does not hold up to stress testing. I’ll only say this because it was reported and I’m going to tread lightly because I am close with many of the people involved, but I did that on the Dr. Dolittle film,” said Rogen.
“Universal, who made that movie, have been very supportive of me and my career and made a lot of our movies…They were having problems with the movie and were calling in people to help kind of get to the bottom of it,” he continued.
Dolittle was a swing and a miss all around, but Robert Downey Jr. is simply too talented to not bounce back and reclaim his place on top once again.