Predicting the Movie Hits and Bombs of 2016

Yeah, it did. It's typical for shows with limited runs that they never find a life in syndication due to the paucity of episodes. Here's a list of just some of the TV series produced by Spielberg:

Amazing Stories (1985)
Tiny Toon Adventures (1990)
SeaQuest DSV (1993)
Family Dog (1993)
Animaniacs (1993)
ER (1994)
Pinky and the Brain (1995–1998)
High Incident (1996–1997)
Band of Brothers (2001)
Taken (2002) (TV)
Into the West (2005)
United States of Tara (2009–2011)
Falling Skies (2011–2015) (TV) (producer)
Terra Nova (2011)
Smash (2012–2013)
The River (2012)
Under the Dome (2013–2015) TV series (executive)
Extant (2014–2015)
Red Band Society (2014–2015)
The Whispers (2015)
Public Morals (2015)
Minority Report (2015)
Halo (2016)

For the most part, 90% of these were not successful shows, critically or financially. Some were enormous outright bombs, particularly High Incident, Taken, Terra Nova, Smash, The River, Extant, Red Band Society, The Whispers, and so on. Not to say there aren't good things there: I enjoyed Smash, and I think Pinky and the Brain was a terrific show and Animaniacs was OK. ER was undeniably a huge, blockbuster show for its time.

 

It's only by a technicality, but "Extant" got a second season so I suppose it can't be an outright bomb. That show was, not surprisingly, kind of right in that same range as "Under the Dome" and "Falling Skies." The first season of "Extant" was better than "Dome." "Extant" was another on of those "interesting concepts" that was executed in a rather wonky fashion. They unfortunately did a pretty big revamp for the second season that turned away from the sci-fi stuff and moved more towards action.

 

Extant (S1) was much, much better than Dome or Falling Skies ever were. I emphasize S1 because S2 really dropped the bar and stooped to the same level as those two. It got to be so bad that I dropped it after the first few eps of S2. They should have stuck with the interesting AI/boy plot rather than pivoting to the silly alien monster on the rampage thing.

 

Most of these shows "underperformed" and lack enough episodes to ever be syndicated, so they're going to sink without a trace. Falling Skies was on for five years and they did 52 episodes, so I'd call that a modest hit, especially for basic cable. Extant was a huge mess and lost half its audience in the second season, plus they fired the showrunner and changed the cast, so it's fair to say there was some turmoil on that show.

I worked a little bit on the pilot of The United States of Tara, and I think that was a very interesting show. I'd call that a critical success, but not a popular or financial success.

 

Chapter 2, si.

 

Either Hacksaw Ridge or the Great Wall next.

 

..

Edit:

(I posted in wrong year.)

 

And here's an interesting wrap-up as to what were the biggest hits of 2016. Surprisingly, the most profitable hit of the year is not a movie you might think of, in a year that had Star Wars: Rogue One, Finding Dory, and Deadpool. It turns out the biggest film was actually The Secret Life of Pets, at least if you look at the overall cost and the final gross...

How ‘The Secret Life Of Pets’ Beat ‘Deadpool’ & ‘Rogue One’ – The Data Behind The Dollars

 

Assassins Creed.
Gamers must have been disappointed.
Load of rubbish.

 

What's with the Mechanic Resurrection blu ray voice over narrative. The theatrical version there was no storytelling voiceover.