Director David Fincher’s box office success can be completely unpredictable, and it isn’t due to a vast difference in quality or genre. The director consistently spits out great, dramatic thrillers that look great and star some of the most talented actors living today.
The director’s movies are always critically acclaimed, but despite their reception, they either bomb or become smash hits. It's kind of a toss up. When it comes to Fincher’s performance at the box office, there’s no telling which way the pendulum will swing.
Zodiac - $84,785,914
There are a lot of things you probably didn’t know about the making of Zodiac, but the most surprising thing of all is just how little money the movie made worldwide. With a budget of $60 million, Zodiac massively underperformed, which is surprising given that it has an all-star cast including Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr., and it was hugely critically acclaimed.
The only reason why it could have underperformed is due to it being quiet, very dialogue-driven, and with very few action thrills.
Fight Club - $101,209,593
It has become a cult classic with a huge fan base that has conjured up some of the craziest fan theories, but when Fight Club was first released in 1999, it was a different story entirely.
The movie was misunderstood, panned by critics, and even Brad Pitt’s presence couldn’t put butts in seats. Fincher has famously criticized the marketing behind the movie too, as it made people believe that the whole thing was purely about underground boxing.
The Game - $109,423,648
The Game came off the heels of Se7en, which saw a ton of box office success, and that movie helped Fincher negotiate his way into getting a higher budget for this one, but that may have been damaging to the movie’s performance.
With a budget of $70 million, The Game is another Fincher helmed movie that didn’t perform as well as it should have despite an abundance of positive reviews and praise for Sean Penn and Michael Douglas’ performance.
Alien 3 - $159,814,498
Released in 1992, Alien 3 is Fincher’s directorial debut and one of the worst Alien movies according to Metacritic. The film was doomed from the start, as at some points, the director was even shooting without a script.
Fincher has famously said that he almost quit the industry after making the movie as he didn’t enjoy all of the studio's meddling. And that meddling led to an unfocused, rough cut of a movie that should have been the third great film of a perfect trilogy.
Panic Room - $197,079,546
One of the best thrillers of the 2000s, Panic Room is the first movie on the list that saw real financial success compared to its budget, as it was made with less than $50 million and made almost $200 million worldwide. The movie’s success made a lot of sense, as it’s much more of a clear and precise popcorn movie than the suspenseful mystery thrillers that Fincher is known for.
And it might have been a conscious decision by the director, as he had just made Fight Club, an ambiguous, confusing bag of mixed messages.
The Social Network - $224,920,315
Though Fincher has made movies based on real life before, he had never made a straight-up biopic, let alone one that isn’t a thriller. Fincher may have been suffering fatigue from directing thrillers, as his previous movie was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, his only family-friendly movie.
But it seemed to work for him, as it saw some of his highest box office grosses and The Social Network is arguably the greatest movie of the 2010s, at least that’s what Quentin Tarantino thinks.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - $232,617,430
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo isn’t the first adaptation of the classic Stieg Larsson novel, as there is a Swedish version starring Naomi Rapace, but Fincher turned it into a huge Hollywood event.
The director cast James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, hired Karen O and Trent Reznor to cover Led Zeppelin, and it’s one of the most beautiful digitally shot movies ever made. Owing to these, along with some extremely graphic and heavily talked about scenes, the movie made a boatload worldwide.
Se7en - $327,333,559
Se7en might be the subject of some hilarious memes, and it may only be remembered by millennials for the final “What’s in the box” scene that has started so many jokes, but the movie is one of the greatest thrillers of all time, placing at number #20 on IMDb’s Top 250 list.
For such a dark and sinister movie, Se7en arguably overperformed at the box office, becoming the seventh highest-grossing movie of 1995.
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button - $335,802,786
As his third collaboration with Brad Pitt, 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, it comes as no surprise that it’s yet another hit. However, the film did have a huge production budget, which accounts for all of the visual effects, as it cost over $150 million to make.
As the production budget doesn’t account for marketing costs, with the rule of thumb being that studios spend as much on marketing as they do on production, the net profit of the movie isn’t actually that high.
Gone Girl - $369,330,363
Without a doubt the highest performing Fincher movie, and with a modest budget at this point in his career, Gone Girl earned 20th Century Fox one of its biggest paydays in 2015. Even its substantial runtime wasn’t enough to keep audiences from eating this movie up.
With great performances across the board, another icy score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and superb source material with it being based on the Gillian Lynch novel of the same name, Fincher hit it right out of the park with his last movie.