Babylon lost Paramount $87 million, then found a cult audience
Damien Chazelle's Babylon, a sprawling portrait of Hollywood lurching from silent films to talkies, took just $65 million against a budget near $80 million. Paramount wrote off an estimated $87 million. Yet the film still won a Golden Globe for its score and has since picked up devoted fans.
Chazelle announced the project in July 2019 as his follow-up to First Man, a period drama set in Hollywood's golden age. Lionsgate, which had released La La Land, looked likely to buy it, but Paramount secured worldwide rights that November. Brad Pitt signed on in January 2020 to play a star modelled on the actor-director John Gilbert. Emma Stone had been circling the female lead but left over scheduling clashes, and Margot Robbie was confirmed in her place in March 2021, alongside newcomer Diego Calva.
The pandemic pushed filming back from mid-2020. Cameras finally rolled on July 1, 2021, and wrapped on October 21. Shea's Castle stood in for the exterior of the opening party mansion, the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles supplied interiors, and Blue Sky Ranch became the fictional studio lot. Justin Hurwitz, Chazelle's regular composer, wrote the score.
The story opens in 1926 with Manny Torres, a Mexican immigrant, hauling an elephant to a studio chief's wild party, where he meets the aspiring actress Nellie LaRoy. Manny climbs to an executive job while Nellie and Pitt's matinee idol Jack Conrad both founder once sound arrives. The film closes in 1952, with Manny watching Singin' in the Rain, a musical about that very transition. Critics have read it as a study of assimilation, since Manny hides his roots and passes himself off as Spanish, and as a meditation on people trying to outrun death.
After screening at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on November 14, 2022, the film opened in the United States on December 23. Reviews split sharply and audiences stayed away. Awards bodies were kinder: five Golden Globe nominations with a win for original score, a BAFTA for production design, and three Oscar nominations. Its reputation has warmed in the years since.
Source: Babylon (2022 film)
