Charlize Theron And Emily Blunt's Fantasy Sequel Was One Of 2016's Biggest Box Office Flops

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Charlize Theron ("Monster," "Prometheus") is an Oscar-winning powerhouse of an actress who has been at it for a long time. Pair her up with an Oscar-nominee like Emily Blunt ("The Devil Wears Prada," "Edge of Tomorrow") in a big fantasy epic, and it feels like a recipe for success, right? Well, not exactly. At least not when it came to 2016's "The Huntsman: Winter's War," which would go down as one of the bigger box office flops that year.

The movie is a sequel to 2012's "Snow White and the Huntsman," which was modestly successful, pulling in $396 million at the box office on a hulking $170 million budget. But the brass at Universal Pictures felt there was enough juice for a sequel. So, they tapped Cedric Nicolas-Troyan to make his directorial debut with "The Huntsman: Winter's War."

While Kristen Stewart ("Twilight") didn't reprise her role as Snow White, much of the core cast, including Chris Hemsworth ("Thor"), were convinced to return. Rupert Sanders directed the first entry in the franchise but didn't return for the follow-up. Sanders would instead direct "Ghost in the Shell," which ended up courting a casting controversy due to Scarlett Johansson starring in the lead role.

The sequel centers on two evil sisters, Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and Freya (Emily Blunt), who are preparing to conquer the land. Meanwhile, two renegades — Eric the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) and his forbidden lover, Sara (Jessica Chastain) — set out to stop them. Oh, and Blunt's character rides a polar bear.

Nicolas-Troyan was given a sizable $115 million budget to work with in addition to a stacked, A-list cast. It was an enviable situation for a first-time feature director, on paper anyway. In practice, it proved to be a bit of a disaster.

Universal barely got away with one, commercially speaking, when it came to "Snow White and the Huntsman." It was successful, but barely so relative to its huge budget. Wisely, they reduced the budget for the sequel, but $115 million, particularly by 2016 standards, is still firmly in blockbuster territory. It would prove to be an ill-advised decision.

For starters, "The Huntsman: Winter's War" was savaged by critics. It holds a lousy 19% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, to go with an also very bad 45% audience rating. That didn't do it any favors heading into a packed pre-summer movie season. A combination of bad word-of-mouth and intense competition would prove to be its undoing.

The sequel hit theaters on the weekend of April 22, 2016. Disney's live-action remake of "The Jungle Book" took the top spot with $61.5 million in its second weekend of release. Disney made $9 billion with these live-action remakes between 2010 and 2019. "The Huntsman" got caught in the middle of that epic run and had to settle for second place with $19.4 million domestically. A terrible start for a movie that cost that much to make. The writing was on the wall at that point.

But the time "Captain America: Civil War" arrived in May and changed the MCU forever, opening to a massive $179.1 million, it was game over. Occasionally, these fantasy movies can make up for shortcomings in North America by performing better overseas, but the interest just wasn't there globally to justify the price tag.

"The Huntsman: Winter's War" finished its run with just $48.3 million domestically, $116.5 million internationally, and a grand total of $164.9 million worldwide.

2016 had its fair share of notable hits, with "Civil War" becoming the year's top-grossing movie, with $1.1 billion worldwide. "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" also turned two lines of text into a $1 billion hit, while "Zootopia" and "Finding Dory" also joined the $1 billion club that year. Yes, Disney had a very good year.

But in terms of box office misfires, it's difficult to find a bigger letdown than "The Huntsman: Winter's War." According to The Guardian, Universal faced an estimated $70 million loss over the failed sequel. That makes it one of the biggest bombs of the year, rivaled only by a few other unfortunate disasters. Paramount's "Monster Trucks" was projected to lose $115 million, making it likely the biggest bomb of the year. It made just $64.4 million globally on a $125 million budget.

Steven Spielberg's "The BFG" also failed at the box office that year, taking in $194.6 million worldwide on a $140 million budget. The "Ben-Hur" remake was also a commercial train wreck of similar proportions, taking in just $94 million worldwide on a $100 million budget. But Universal's "Huntsman" sequel is in the conversation for 2016, rivaled only by Paramount's absolutely baffling flop of epic proportions. It's not great company to be in.

"Snow White and the Huntsman" only kind of worked. Universal got lucky. Attempting to milk that very expensive cow for more ended up costing the studio more than it probably made from the first movie. In Hollywood, it's good to know when to walk away. Otherwise, hard and expensive lessons must be learned.

You can grab the "Snow White and the Huntsman" two-movie collection on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.