Jennifer Lawrence is the latest superstar actor to make a Netflix movie, after a string of box-office flops

tclark@businessinsider.com (Travis Clark)
·2 min read
jennifer lawrence
Lawrence

Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

  • Jennifer Lawrence is set to star in "Vice" director Adam McKay's Netflix comedy movie, "Don't Look Up."

  • Lawrence is the latest superstar actor to turn to Netflix, following the likes of Will Smith, Adam Sandler, and Ryan Reynolds.

  • Lawrence has made a string of box-office flops recently, including "Dark Phoenix" last year.

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Netflix has reeled in yet another high-profile actor.

Jennifer Lawrence is set to star in "Vice" director Adam McKay's upcoming comedy movie, "Don't Look Up," for the streaming giant. The movie is about astronomers who must convince the world that an asteroid is rocketing toward Earth.

Lawrence is the latest actor to turn to Netflix, following the likes of Will Smith ("Bright"), Ryan Reynolds ("6 Underground"), and Adam Sandler, who just renewed a lucrative four-movie deal with Netflix. Even Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who is a global superstar on the big screen and was the world's highest-paid actor last year, is making the Netflix action movie, "Red Notice" (also starring Reynolds).

While Lawrence topped Forbes' annual list of the highest-paid actresses in the world in both 2015 and 2016, Netflix grants her an opportunity to rebound from a string of recent box-office flops. Her latest bomb was last year's X-Men movie, "Dark Phoenix," which was the lowest-grossing movie of the franchise by far.

Her other recent flops include:

  • 2018's "Red Sparrow" grossed $47 million domestically ($151 million globally) off of a $70 million production budget and received a 45% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

  • 2017's controversial "mother!" made just $44.5 million worldwide and got an F grade from Cinemascore.

  • 2016's "Passengers" made $303 million worldwide, a disappointing number considering it cost more than $100 million to make and was expected to be a major hit.

Lawrence's last major hit was "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2" in 2015, which made $658 million worldwide.

At a time when mega franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe draw audiences to the theater more than actors, they can still find major paydays at Netflix.

Reynolds and Johnson are both set to earn at least $20 million for "Red Notice, and Smith is expected to make $35 million for the "Bright" sequel, Variety reported. Sandler's initial Netflix deal in 2014 was worth $250 million, according to Forbes.

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