Box Office: 'Murder On The Orient Express' Is Fox's MVP For 2017

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20th Century Fox

After a month in theaters (it opened early in the United Kingdom), Kenneth Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express has earned $195 million worldwide on a $55m budget. That includes $74m domestic and $120m overseas. The film isn't quite done (it has eleven territories, including Japan and France, left to go), and it should be able to snag at least over/under $275m worldwide and thus quadruple its budget by the time it leaves theaters.

So it is little surprise that Fox and friends have already greenlit a sequel to Kenneth Branagh's all-star murder mystery, with Death on the Nile next on the dock. It may not be Fox's biggest hit of 2017, but it may well prove their most valuable one. It is proof positive that the studio can make big-scale movies for adults, and that (most importantly) adults will actually sample said movies in theaters.

After a rough 2016 (yay DeadpoolThe Revenant and Hidden Figures, boo almost everything else), Fox's 2017 slate was a mix of DreamWorks and Blue Sky animated fare and a bunch of adult-skewing biggies. DWA is going to Comcast starting next year, which makes Ferdinand a key Christmas release (opening on the same day as Star Wars: The Last Jedi), but the big movies from Fox were generally somewhat more adult-skewing than the stereotypical blockbuster offering. To wit, you had R-rated fare like LoganA Cure for WellnessSnatchedKingsman: The Golden Circle and Alien: Covenant along with PG-13 but adult-targeted offerings like War for the Planet of the ApesThe Mountain Between Us and (presumably) The Greatest Showman.

But the strategy ran headfirst into a new normal by which general moviegoers go to theaters for the big four-quadrant tentpoles and leave almost everything else to VOD, Redbox or Netflix/Hulu/Amazon. As such, while the comic book movies (Logan and Kingsman) were good-to-great hits, the rest of that lineup either struggled domestically (War for the Planet of the Apes needed China to triple its budget) or outright tanked. But Murder on the Orient Express wasn't a comic book movie or DWA animated feature.

Fox sold the Agatha Christie adaptation as something of an event for adults, with a marketing campaign that highlighted the deluge of movie stars (Judi Dench, Daisy Ridley, Johnny Depp, etc.) and sold Branagh's Hercule Poirot as a period-era superhero. And, as hoped, we adults actually showed up to see the snappily-paced and mostly entertaining little mystery thriller. The film snagged $28 million via its domestic debut and has thus far held on to the point where it should shine as the adult movie of choice until mid-December, give or take expanding Oscar contenders.

You can make the case that a movie like Murder on the Orient Express, with strong production values, big-name stars filling out nearly every major role, beloved source material and a prestigious/respected filmmaker behind the camera, would have been an A-level studio picture in an era when big-budget action fantasy movies were few and far between, and when a movie like The Rock would be expected to trounce The Phantom. But that's no longer the case, as we've seen time and time again with old-school movie stars trying to make waves with old-school star vehicles and with would-be newbies crashing with likewise. Tom Hardy may be a "star," but nobody shows up for The Drop or Child 44 and Bradley Cooper's American Sniper can't make Aloha! into a hit.

That's a conversation for another day, and it's part of why it's so frustrating to see "next-big-things" like Channing Tatum and Armie Hammer get a million second chances before finally becoming an "overnight star." The success of Murder on the Orient Express is two-fold. First, it shows that there is real value in having known/well-liked actors in an already compelling package. Second, it is a proof of concept for Fox's recent attempts to make itself into a home for movies that are a little darker/grimmer than the stereotypical Disney tentpoles.

Jeff Goldblum may not make Thor: Ragnarok into a hit, but having Jeff Goldblum means that A) folks take Thor: Ragnarok a little more seriously and B) a known entity like Goldblum or Cate Blanchett is invaluable when promoting the property outside the film nerd bubble. It's one reason why Oz: The Great and Powerful was a hit but Jack the Giant Slayer was a flop. And while Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odom, Jr., Penelope Cruz and Willem Dafoe aren't "openers," the deluge of big names is a huge/vital added-value element for the movie, especially one that targets older audiences who still like movie stars.

As for the second thing, Murder on the Orient Express is Fox's first unmitigated smash this year that wasn't a comic book movie or a DWA animated feature. The Kenneth Branagh-directed offering is a prototypical example of the kind of big movies that Fox arguably should focus upon if they wish to stand out from the crowd. As such, its relatively huge success (along with the likes of DeadpoolThe Revenant and Hidden Figures) offer proof that these kinds of movies can succeed in a cutthroat theatrical environment.

We'll see if this is the start of a successful new franchise or just a one-off curiosity that came at the right time against the right competition. But Fox's "big movies for grownups" strategy got a very important hit right at the end of the line. Here's hoping The Greatest Showman follows suit.

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