For over a decade, Robert Downey Jr. played MCU pillar Tony Stark, a billionaire superhero who would almost certainly consider Dolittle’s abysmal opening weekend earnings to be little more than pocket change.
Despite opening on a holiday weekend, RDJ’s Dolittle made just $29.5 million over the four-day period, and only an additional $17 million internationally. Dolittle cost a jaw-dropping $175 million to make, so those box office numbers are kind of catastrophic, with Universal expected to lose $100 million on the movie, according to The Wrap. Universal, it should be noted, also took a bath last month when the furry fever dream that is Cats flopped, but at least Cats only cost $90 million to make, so the loss isn’t quite as terrible.
The only slim hope for Dolittle’s prospects is a higher than expected haul in the international markets where it hasn’t opened yet—including China—but maybe don’t hold your breath.
It took the strain of wielding all six Infinity Stones to kill him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so Robert Downey Jr. will probably survive Dolittle’s bomb. Still… yikes. Dolittle was Downey’s first film role after Avengers: Endgame, so it’s perhaps not an auspicious sign that he opted to start his post-Marvel career by choosing to star in a terrible flop. What’s the point of shoving your arm, shoulder-deep, into the anus of a constipated CGI dragon—real event in Dolittle, sorry to say it!—if the movie doesn’t even make money?
Downey’s performance in Dolittle was widely criticized, especially his accent, which seemed to drift uneasily from a tortured stab at something vaguely Welsh to an (unintentional?) Jamaican timbre. Still, it feels unfair to but all of the blame for Dolittle’s disastrous reception at Downey’s feet. Real movie stars—people like Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and Tom Hanks; the sorts of actors that get people buying tickets to see a movie because they want to see their favorite star on the big screen—don’t really exist anymore.
Dolittle’s accent woes aside, Downey Jr is an exceptionally talented actor, but the masses likely loved him for being Tony Stark, not for being Robert Downey Jr. His (albeit massive) stardom isn’t the sort of fame that can make a movie a sensation on its own anymore, and Doctor Dolittle certainly isn’t as beloved as Iron Man is. That’s probably the bigger problem. Why did Universal think that Doctor Dolittle was the right IP to dust-off and turn into a popular franchise in the year 2020, especially considering that the 1967 attempt to make a movie out of the book series was an infamous bomb. And, why did Universal spend $25 million more dollars to make Dolittle than they spent making Jurassic World?
Dolittle was hardly a sure thing, and it didn’t help that the final product is, by all accounts, a bad movie. Is it any surprise that it flopped? Even Iron Man couldn’t save this one.
