Why is Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt's Babylon not living up to the hype?

On paper, Academy Award winners Brad Pitt and Damien Chazelle matched with Hollywood superstar Margot Robbie, would make a box office smash… but reviews are suggesting that their 2022 film ‘Babylon’ is more hysterical than historical.

Babylon is set in the late 1920s and discovers the rise of ‘talkies’ with Margot Robbie trying to break through into movie stardom while Brad Pitt holds the keys for some movie-making hopefuls.

The combination of Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and early Hollywood has been covered before with Quentin Tarantino’s hit ‘Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood’, however this new rendition with La La Land’s Chazelle at the helm, has sadly missed the mark.

As emerging reviews battle between one-star and five-stars , PeopleWorld takes a look at why Brad Pitt’s Babylon is not living up to the hype.

Babylon was released on 23 December 2022, just in time for Christmas. Unfortunately, it was not met with merry reviews or reactions as it flopped at the box office.

While the three-hour long drama-comedy picture had a budget of around $78-80 million, it only brought in $3.5 million on its opening weekend.

According to Deadline, even Brad Pitt featuring in the movie could not save the opening weekend due to external factors such as the decline in prestige films, the impact of Winter Storm Elliott which caused $5.4 billion worth of damage to parts of North America, an increase in Covid-19 and flu cases.

Babylon’s almighty run time of three hours may have acted as a deterrent too, as people avoid going to longer films - seen by the outrage at James Cameron’s lengthy Avatar 2 sequel which ran for three hours and 12 minutes.

In response to the run time criticism, James Cameron said: “I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch television for eight-hours.”

Although Avatar 2 had a similar runtime to Babylon, James Cameron’s sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time brought in a whopping $1.19 billion international earnings, leaving Damien Chazelle’s in its rear-view mirror.

Some suggest that Damien Chazelle was taking a risk with the runtime and budget, especially as unlike Avatar 2 or Avengers: Endgame (which has a three-hour runtime too), it does not have a franchise to fall back on.

Another concept that may have hindered Babylon’s hype is the mixed bag of reviews - comments range from ‘tailor-made to divide audiences’ and ‘amazing and extravagant movie’ to ‘the story (if that word can be used to describe a succession of over-choreographed set pieces strung together by interstitial date markers and bouts of screaming)’ and ‘Babylon is exhaustingly unexciting.’

It is important to note that the movie was also released at a time when Brad Pitt was not painted in the best light as claims were made about his relationship with ex-wife Angelina Jolie.

The Independent stated: “Reinvention is a playground to some, like established star Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt, whose presence is coloured by the recent accusations of domestic violence by ex-wife Angelina Jolie, which he denies).”

Despite the overwhelming causes of concern for the movie’s reputation, there are still glimmers of hope with some viewers revealing they love the ‘chaos’ of the movie and the combination of Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Damien Chazelle.