Sony’s Tom Rothman on what went wrong with Men in Black: International

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL was intended to relaunch Sony's MEN IN BLACK franchise without Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones, but unfortunately, the film received largely negative reviews and hasn't exactly been burning up the box-office. While speaking with Business Insider, Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, touched upon what went wrong with the sequel.

I think the truth of the matter is the audience really liked that film and the cast was wonderful, Tessa [Thompson] and Chris [Hemsworth] were great and did a terrific job, but if we made any mistake, I think it probably was that there was not a strong enough idea in the story. Especially when you compare that to, say, "Jumanji," which had a very, very strong idea. So the lesson of it is we have a pretty darn good batting average around here, but you are never going to bat 1.000, and you need to continue to take risks. But you have to try to manage risk. In the case of "Men in Black," we had two cofinanciers on that movie and that manages the risk. I really do believe you cannot eliminate risk in the movie business. If you try to eliminate risk, you will eliminate creativity, and if you eliminate creativity, you will eliminate success.

Although MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL's box-office hasn't been all that impressive, the film is still playing in theaters and Rothman believes that it will do $250-$300 million worldwide at the end of the day; not a huge financial disappointment, but certainly not the franchise restart which they had planned. Howevere, Rothman isn't about to close the book on the MEN IN BLACK franchise at this point. "That movie is still in theaters, playing out in the rest of the world, so ask me that question after ancillaries — after we go out in digital and DVD. I mean, we are making "Zombieland 2" right now, the audience is crazy for that," Rothman said. "But if you asked whoever was in my job a few weeks after the theatrical of "Zombieland" whether you're going to make another one, they would have you hauled off to the loony bin. But it has taken on a great life. So "Men in Black" remains a very important asset that the company owns, and I would be very surprised if that is the last movie." I've no doubt that MEN IN BLACK will return in some form, I'm just sorry that the latest attempt wasted Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, but hey, at least we've got THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER on the way!