I know we’re all rooting for Ben Affleck’s “Air” to succeed at the box-office, but I don’t think it’s doing that well.
Will “Air” break even? It is holding some kind of audience at the box-office and is set for an $8 million second weekend. That’ll be good enough for fifth place.
The film will probably end up with a domestic total of $33M by Sunday. Its $90 million budget is fairly high for a talking-room drama, add in the marketing costs and there’s probably not much of a chance that Amazon will make their money back with this one.
The Ben Affleck-directed drama about how Nike got Michael Jordan to be their spokesman is an original film, not based on other material, and not a sequel. A rarity these days. We’re all pulling for it, but, I hate to admit it, it just hasn’t had strong numbers.
Some in the film media are doing mental gymnastics and telling themselves that “Air” has been a post-pandemic success, but does that mean we’ve changed the definition of a box-office “success” since COVID? As far as I can see, Amazon stands to lose money from this film.
Does Amazon care? They have money to burn and knew the film was a financial gamble from the get-go. “Air” can still be a “success” for them if it gets Oscar nominations come next year. I’m skeptical that’ll happen, but there are others who truly believe it will be a contender.
Starring Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Affleck, and Jason Bateman, “Air” is well-reviewed with a 73 on Metacritic and a glowy 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. It also nabbed an A on CinemaScore — audiences seem to love the movie as well.