The biggest stars in Hollywood normally have no issues with helping a film become a hit at the box office, but every now and again, a movie featuring huge names will fall through the cracks and turn into a flop. Even franchise films can stumble out the gate and wind up losing a bunch of money.
Reese Witherspoon has been a huge star in the industry for years, but back in 2010, Reese Witherspoon led a star-studded cast in a romantic comedy that was unable to capitalize on its potential while on its way to becoming a flop.
Let’s take a look and see what happened.
How Do You Know Had A Huge Cast
One of the most effective ways a movie studio can boost potential profits on a film is by casting bankable stars who have a proven track record of conquering the box office. This was precisely the type of strategy that the studio behind How Do You Know utilized when they cast a bevy of talented performers in the film’s lead roles.
A quick look at the roster of individuals bringing this film to life will reveal an exceptional amount of talent and prior success within the cast. Stars like Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, Kathryn Hahn, and Jack Nicholson all took part in the project. From the outside looking in, it would seem as though casting performers of their caliber would have been more than enough for this film to become a worldwide success, but the studio would learn a tough lesson with the end result of this film.
As we have seen in the past, slam dunk casting isn’t always a guarantee for a movie to perform well at the box office. Yes, people do like going to a movie to see an ensemble cast, but at the end of the day, the film still needs to deliver a whole lot more than just the faces on the screen.
Not only did this film have a huge cast, but it also carried a huge budget, as well.
It Also Had A Huge Budget
For the most part, it would seem that a romantic comedy flick is one that wouldn’t require a whole lot of money to make. So, if you’re going to spend the big bucks, you had better believe that the script you’re bringing to life is exceptional enough to break the mold of the genre. Sony wound up learning the hard way what happens when you spend way too much money on a romantic comedy back in 2010 when this film was released.
According to Box Office Mojo, How Do You Know came with the monster price tag of $120 million, which is a staggering amount of money to sink into a romantic comedy. While it is true that these movies are able to make a solid amount of money at the box office, $120 million for this type of project sounds just as outlandish as it actually was for the studio.
With a huge budget and huge names, Sony must have felt some semblance of confidence in this movie being able to become one of the biggest grossers in the genre’s history. Unfortunately, this movie did little more than flop and be forgotten.
It Flopped Badly
Films go down in history for a variety of reasons, and in the case of How Do You Know, this film is simply remembered for the fact that it was such a huge disappointment at the box office. This is not to say that a ton of hard work and passion didn’t go into bringing this flick to life. It’s just a testament to the fact that nothing is guaranteed in the movie business.
According to Box Office Mojo, this film was only able to haul in $48 million against its $120 million budget. That is a massive amount of money for the studio to have to eat for any project, and we cannot imagine what things looked like behind the scenes at Sony when How Do You Know fell right on its face.
Fortunately, all of the performers involved with the film have moved on and have continued to do amazing things. Sometimes, the entertainment industry is incredibly unforgiving, and one massive flop is all it takes to completely derail someone’s career. In this case, however, the stars were able to make it out relatively unscathed and many of the members of this cast have gone on to appear in the MCU, coincidentally.
How Do You Know should have been a hit, but its massive budget was simply too much to overcome.