Robert Downey Jr.'s First Post-Marvel Movie Bombs At The Box Office

Robert Downey Jr.'s first post-Avengers movie, a re-imagining of the Dr. Dolittle series--has come up short at the box office. The movie is projected to make $50 million worldwide this weekend, including $30 million in America and $20 million from international markets.

The movie had a reported budget of $175 million, and now a report claims the film could end up losing $100 million for Universal. Multiple film finance experts told The Wrap that they are modeling a $100 million loss for the movie.

This is bad news for Universal, which also produced the box office loser Cats. That film, which reportedly had a lower budget of between $90 million and $95 million, will lose around $70 million when all is said and done, according to the report.

As The Wrap reminds us, Dolittle has yet to open in 20 markets worldwide, including China, so the box office results are expected to get better over time. The movie could break even if those new markets overperform against expectations. The film also faces an uphill battle as it relates to reception, as the movie has a very low 27 rating on GameSpot sister site Metacritic.

Reports indicated that the budget ballooned for Dolittle due to reshoots, among other things. The film makes use of a lot of CGI as well, which surely came at no small expense.

The movie also features performances by Antonio Banderas, Emma Thompson, Michael Sheen, Rami Malek, John Cena, Octavia Spencer, Tom Holland, Craig Robinson, Ralph Fiennes, Selena Gomez, Kumail Nanjiani, and Marion Cotillard.

Dolittle is directed by Oscar-winning directed Stephan Gaghan (Traffic, Syriana).

As for Downey Jr., he is rumoured to appear as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Black Widow this year, but after that, he is reportedly finished playing the character.