History has shown that if you want a big budget blockbuster to either find itself trashed by critics, get completely ignored by audiences, or in many cases a combination of the two, then the easiest way to get it done is by casting Jared Leto.
Having lent his bespoke talents to the Hatbox Ghost in Haunted Mansion, the one-time Academy Award and two-time Razzie winner has shown up in yet another $100+ million production destined to go down in a burning ball of box office flames.
It’s hardly a new phenomenon, either, with the actor’s track record stretching back almost a quarter of a century. It might be a stone-cold classic these days, but David Fincher’s Fight Club still underperformed back in 1999, while Oliver Stone’s Alexander lost an absolute fortune after being avoided like the plague in 2004.
David Ayer’s Suicide Squad may have turned a huge profit, but it still remains the DCU’s worst-reviewed installment ever, with Leto comfortably the weakest live-action interpretation of the Joker there’s ever been. Blade Runner 2049 is a modern masterpiece that nonetheless tanked, while Morbius had the distinction of flopping twice over.
Now that Haunted Mansion has been added to the list, you’ve got to wonder if anyone at Disney is getting a little concerned that Leto was the first name announced for the cast of the inevitably expensive Tron: Ares. Not to say there’s a pattern, but the evidence is quite clear that the method man’s mere presence is as close to a commercial kiss of death as any costly project can hope to find.