Why 'Widows' has flopped at the box office despite stellar reviews and a powerhouse cast including Viola Davis and Liam Neeson

Fox

Viola Davis in "Widows"

• "Widows," a heist movie from "12 Years a Slave" director Steve McQueen starring Viola Davis, disappointed at the box office in its opening weekend with just $12 million.
• Box-office experts agree that the movie should have been released on a different date outside of the busy November schedule.
• A social-media analysis from Crimson Hexagon showed that online buzz around the movie had decreased dramatically since its first trailer debuted.

A studio heist thriller from an acclaimed director with a powerhouse diverse cast, Steve McQueen's "Widows" is the kind of movie that audiences who clamor for original, well-made films should have been lining up to see at the theater.

But the movie fell flat at the box office in its opening weekend with just $12 million (it cost $42 million to make). It came in fifth, predictably behind the latest movie in the blockbuster "Harry Potter" universe, "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald."

Less predictable, though, was that it fell short of the other major new release this weekend, the Mark Wahlberg-starring comedy "Instant Family," as well as the Freddie Mercury-biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Grinch," which held strong in their third and second weekends, respectively.

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So what went wrong with "Widows"? It stars Oscar winner Viola Davis and audience favorite Liam Neeson, along with Colin Farrell, "Get Out" star Daniel Kaluuya, and more. It's an action movie wrapped in a tale of corruption that's politically and socially relevant. And yet, it didn't find an audience.

A social-media analysis conducted by consumer-insights company Crimson Hexagon for Business Insider found that social media buzz around the film during its opening weekend was subpar, especially compared to when its first trailer debuted on June 4. At that time, the movie generated over 26,000 posts on Twitter and Instagram, according to Crimson Hexagon, and under 10,000 posts on Friday when it debuted.

A chart from Crimson Hexagon showing the data is below:

Crimson Hexagon

Interest in the film obviously decreased between June and now, and that could be attributed to a marketing problem. BoxOfficeAnalyst.com's Doug Stone said the movie was primarily marketed toward African American audiences even though the film is "really not ethnically unidirectional."

"While this type of marketing thrust isn't a bad thing in and of itself for the appropriate product, the film perhaps should have been marketed to cross over to a broader audience," Stone told Business Insider.

Exhibitor Relations senior box-office analyst Jeff Bock said that Fox, the studio behind the movie, didn't make a smart call opening "Widows" up against Warner Bros.' "Fantastic Beasts" (the good news, though, is that Fox released "Bohemian Rhapsody" earlier this month, which has made over $380 million worldwide). "Fantastic Beasts" overshadowed "Widows" online, as well. According to Crimson Hexagon's analysis, the former generated over 157,000 Twitter and Instagram posts over the weekend.

Stone agreed that the film's release date in the midst of a jam-packed schedule wasn't favorable, and said that it would have fared better opening later in the year.

"The consensus among theatre exhibitors is that the 11/2 - 11/21 period is very much overloaded with product," Stone said.

Its mature themes and R rating limited its appeal, too, and Stone said "that may have been a detriment during this particular time frame" when more family-friendly options are in theaters.

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"Widows" also highlights a trend in recent months of audiences ignoring critical reviews. Poorly-reviewed films, like "The Nun," "Venom," and "Bohemian Rhapsody" have all exceeded expectations at the box office, despite subpar or even abysmal reviews. On the flip side, audiences ignored "Widows" despite its impressive 91% Rotten Tomatoes critic score. The same can be said of critically acclaimed films like "First Man" and "Suspiria," which failed to generate excitement among general moviegoers.

All of this is why a rebound for "Widows" is hard to predict. Oscar buzz and good word of mouth could benefit the movie in the long run, as well as this weekend's holiday, according to Stone. But a lack of interest now despite plenty of critical buzz might not bode well for that prospect, either.

"User ratings were not stellar with it showing 66% on Rotten Tomatoes," Stone said. " The Metacritic response was somewhat better, but the Cinemascore was a B. That is not a great result. IMDb responses put it as above average but not in the good category."

"We'll have to wait and see how it performs this week before we make any long term judgments," Bock said.