Universal Pictures Set to Lose $70 Million Due to “The Huntsman: Winter’s War”

April 27, 2016 Farid-ul-Haq

The Huntsman Winter's War

The end of Universal Pictures’ Huntsman franchise seems likely considering the money The Huntsman: Winter’s War is predicted to make. It all goes to show that not every film demands a sequel, let alone being turned into a whole franchise.

According to Variety, rival studios estimate that The Huntsman: Winter’s War will lose approximately $70 million and thus, extinguish Universal Pictures’ hopes of creating an action-fantasy franchise to profit from. However, there are other sources that say the studio will lose $30-40 million considering the film does well on home entertainment platforms. Whatever the end result might be, people agree that the film is a loss for the studio.

The Huntsman: Winter’s War was produced on a budget of $115 million and opened to only $20 million at the US box office. Executives predict that the film will need to gain an approximate $325 million to break even if one is to consider marketing and distribution costs.

I watched Winter’s War and I have to say that I found it quite boring. Having talent such as Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt, and Jessica Chastain in the cast just wasn’t enough to save a sequel that felt unnecessary and completely predictable.

It might’ve turned out better if Snow White (Kristen Stewart) joined Eric (Chris Hemsworth) to fight Freya, the Ice Queen, because truth be told I was not the least bit interested in Eric’s journey whatsoever. I was more interested in the dynamics between Ravenna and Freya. Both Charlize and Emily were able to breathe life in otherwise one-dimensional characters, and they both looked amazing doing it.

While the current franchise is a loss for the studio, I just hope Universal Pictures opens its eyes and realize that churning out unnecessary franchises to make a quick buck doesn’t always work out well.

Did you watch The Huntsman: Winter’s War? Did you enjoy it? Let us know!

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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4 thoughts on “Universal Pictures Set to Lose $70 Million Due to “The Huntsman: Winter’s War””

  1. While I agree that it wasn’t a necessary sequel at all, I actually liked this one more than the first. I was expecting more of a story between Freya and Ravenna, though. I mean, Charlize Theron was barely in it at all, despite what all the marketing seemed to imply.

    1. Ravenna and Freya scenes were awesome and I was very surprised when Charlize didn’t come back after so late in the film…a story about Ravenna, Freya, and Snow White being Freya’s daughter would’ve made for a far better film (in my opinion) rather than the whole huntsman’s journey back to his love, etc…like it could’ve been a side-story with more focus being on Ravenna, Freya, and SWhite.

  2. @Farid I’m with you all the way, I’ve not had the occasion to watch it but from what a critic friend told me about it I’d have preferred a different kind of effort from Universal Pictures…IMO it’s not enough to put out there some characters that have worked before with a subplot copied from the cartoon Frozen (that besides wasn’t completely original either ;-P) to make it WOW!

    I’m not such a big fan of Kristen but they’ve *fired* her because of something happened in her personal life, frankly this doesn’t seem professional (but very American I’d add, who cares for something happened outside of the movie if the film in itself is good I say? It’s not our business to care!-_-); so it’d have been different with a sequel to that original story, usually they’re always more intriguing than a prequel-plot (yep, including even Lord of the Rings for me)…but what it’s done is done, hopefully TPTB will learn from this flop next time around.

    1. Yeah…before Kristen was fired she was connected to the sequel…which I do feel would’ve turned out far better than what we finally got in Winters War…there was so much potential between Ravenna, Freya, and SWhite dynamic…let’s see what other franchise Universal Pictures tries to create next and whether or not they’ve learned anything from this.

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