Countless films are released every year, and not all of them are a gigantic success. But sometimes you don’t really notice much about flops. A sci-fi film with a star from Star Wars wanted to be a success and even postponed its release. But that didn’t help and he still flopped.
What film is it about? 65 was released in 2023. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods directed it. The two are best known for writing and producing The Quiet Place. 65 comes from Sony and with Adam Driver as the lead, it’s a pretty familiar face that most people probably know from Star Wars.
Mills is an astronaut who accepts a two-year space mission to raise money to cure his ailing daughter. During his mission, an asteroid crash occurs, causing him to land on a wild planet filled with dinosaurs. But he is not the only person.
Despite the interesting survival premise and a familiar face, the actually pretty cheap film flopped. This was mainly due to Sony themselves, who made some mistakes.
You can see a trailer for the film here:
65 – Trailer for the sci-fi film with dinosaurs and Adam Driver
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Moved from one wrong time to the next
How did it go for 65? According to Screen Rant, 65 only cost $45 million. The film was shot mainly in Louisiana and was able to receive subsidies. Despite the low budget, the film only managed to gross $60 million. A pretty bad result for such a cheap film.
Why did the film flop? It’s safe to assume that Sony lost faith in the film early on. Apart from trailers and posters, there was hardly any advertising for 65. Sony probably didn’t want to invest if it didn’t promise much. For a new film without an existing franchise, that alone is a death sentence.
There is also the timing of the release. The film was originally scheduled to be released in April 2022 (via Deadline). But that was ultimately postponed for almost a whole year. Presumably Sony wanted to face competition in the form of Dr. Avoid Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
But the new time was even worse. With Creed 3 and Scream 6, films that belong to established franchises were released. Both films were extremely successful. Creed 3 grossed over $275 million on a budget of $75 million (via Box Office Mojo) and Scream 6 grossed over $166 million on a budget of $35 million (via Box Office Mojo).
Such a bad starting situation can’t save Adam Driver, who tends to work on smaller projects outside of Star Wars.
The film also failed among critics and audiences who saw it. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a poor score of just 36% from 127 reviews. Viewers were a little more gracious, giving the film 64% out of over 1,000 reviews.
Due to the probable lack of faith and the poor time period, 65 became a sci-fi film that only a few saw. However, the film was able to attract new viewers thanks to its release on Netflix in the USA. Whether the film will develop into an insider tip in the future is questionable given the bad or mediocre reviews. Speed Racer at least made it: An anime adaptation by the makers of The Matrix cost $120 million – the film flopped, but became a cult film