It’s a major Hollywood film about the most high-profile exposé of the past decade. It’s been tipped as a contender for best picture at the Oscars, and the reviews and audience response have been glowing. But barely anyone has bothered to go and see it.

She Said, which was released in cinemas two weeks ago and made on a reported budget of $US32 million ($47.7 million), has been called “one of the biggest box office flops in history”.

Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who won the Pulitzer Prize for their investigation into Harvey Weinstein.Credit:JoJo Whilden/Universal Pictures via AP

The film suffered what Deadline called “a brutal drubbing” on its opening weekend in the US, taking just $US2.27 million ($3.39 million) despite being projected to make around double that amount. And, though it’s performed a touch better on our screens, the film’s Australian release hasn’t been so hot either.

According to box office figures from Numero, She Said clocked up $410,746 in its opening weekend – less than the lower budget, lower profile dramedy Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, which had already been in cinemas for weeks. During its opening week, She Said was overtaken at the Australian box office by Drishyam 2 – a Hindi-language thriller showing at around one fifth the number of theatres.

Benjamin Zeccola, chief executive of Palace Cinemas, says an opening weekend around $500,000 is “not inconsequential” – and at his cinemas, which cater to a “discerning” crowd, the film actually did pretty well. But as it’s showing at 262 locations across the country “it probably wasn’t a great outing [for a lot of cinemas].”

Representatives of Hoyts, Event Cinemas and Universal (which distributes the film) declined the opportunity to speak with this masthead about why the release might be underperforming. But Zeccola says it could have something to do with the film’s “challenging” nature.

“The central theme, surrounding Harvey Weinstein, is downright repulsive. That’s always going to be a marketing challenge. And the poster and tagline – “Will you go on the record” – they’re kind of confrontational. It’s all a bit unsettling at a time when people are feeling unsettled anyway.”

She Said, he points out, opened at a time when COVID cases were on the rise, in the lead-up to a state election, as people warily count down the days to summer holidays.

“Challenging films can work tremendously well,” Zeccola says. “But I think it can be a quirk of timing … We definitely feel like people gravitate toward escapism and indulgence when things are a little bit challenging. And when everything’s going great, there is more of an appetite for more challenging cinema.”

“[Right now], people are looking to escape and indulge.”

This is a widely theorised trend that goes far beyond this film. Early last year, a number of Hollywood producers were predicting that, post-COVID, “stories that are more uplifting and optimistic will be at a premium”.

“There’s enough stress in the world,” Milan Poelka, chief operating officer of FilmNation, told Variety. “I don’t think people will be interested in watching something that adds to their stress levels.”

And this idea has been solidified with what’s resonated since. In 2022, escapist superhero flicks (Thor: Love and Thunder, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness) have dominated the box office alongside action and adventure (Unchartered, Bullet Train), and the odd romcom (Ticket to Paradise) or feelgood story (Mrs Harris Goes to Paris).

And that’s without even mentioning Top Gun: Maverick.

That Tom Cruise blockbuster – which epitomised spectacle, nostalgia and escapism – was far and away the number-one film for the year, smashing box office records and cementing its place as one of the most popular films in Australian cinema history.

Australia’s highest-grossing movies of 2022 so far

On the whole, there’s nothing shocking about that list. Superhero movies and action blockbusters have had top billing at the box office for a long time now, well before the pandemic. But, judging by the numbers, it does seem increasingly difficult for dramatic films to cut through.

Through the early-mid 2010s, it wasn’t uncommon for a few dramas per year (think: Les Miserables, The Fault in Our Stars, American Sniper, The Revenant) to crack $10 million at the Australian box office. Some, like Lion and A Star is Born (each grossing more than $20 million), even made it into the top 10 films for the year.

But with cinema revenue down across the board and streaming services cannibalising a lot of dramatic fare (last year’s best picture winner, Coda, came from Apple TV+), this now seems increasingly rare. According to figures from Box Office Mojo, the film that came closest in 2022 was Reese Witherspoon’s adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing (on $7.3 million).

Though most of the films thought to be contenders for next year’s best picture prize are yet to be released in Australia, almost all of them have struggled to attract mainstream audiences in the US. Commentators have labelled the recent Thanksgiving weekend as the “worst ever … for adult specialised titles”.

Benjamin Zeccola is confident, however, there’s at least one film that will cut through here: Cate Blanchett’s Tar.

“There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind,” he says. “That film is going to be a hit, no matter how hard it is [to sell].”

“There are no hard and fast rules in this industry … I could say to you, ‘yeah, no one in this market is going to go and watch a heavy, challenging film’ and then next weekend, something will open that completely defies that.”

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.

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