‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ on HBO: How Does Drew Goddard’s Second Film Stack Up to ‘The Cabin in the Woods’?

By Anna Menta
Published June 1, 2019, 6:00 p.m. ET

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Bad Times at the El Royale

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Bad Times at the El Royale

It’s fairly likely that you didn’t see Bad Times at the El Royale—which premieres on HBO tonight and is now streaming on HBO Now—when it came out in theaters last fall. I say this because the film, a period neo-noir thriller from director Drew Goddard, was considered a box office flop, grossing only $31 million worldwide, failing to make back its production budget of $32 million. More like bad times for the El Royale, am I right? (Sorry.)

The Bad Times at the El Royale cast boasts plenty of big names, including Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, and Chris Hemsworth. Each of those actors plays one of seven strangers who, on one fateful night in 1969, all come together at a sketchy hotel on the border of California and Nevada. Reviews were mostly positive—it currently holds a 75 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes—but the film clocks in at an exhausting two hours and 21 minutes. That runtime may be the norm for superhero films these days, but for other genres, it’s still a big ask.

Perhaps that’s what held this film back from achieving the same cultural impact as Goddard’s first film as a director, 2012’s The Cabin in the Woods. Unlike Bad Times, The Cabin in the Woods was a box office success, making $66 million worldwide, more than doubling its reported budget of $30 million. Most critics loved the film—it holds a 91 percent on Rotten Tomatoes—and more than that, it permeated nerd culture, becoming the film that Reddit and Tumblr insisted you had to go see. It helped, of course, that Goddard’s frequent collaborator, whom he first worked with as a writer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon co-wrote the script. It also helped that this was back when we all still like Joss Whedon. And not for nothing, but The Cabin in the Woods is a cool 95 minutes long. It really makes a difference!

Goddard, who also wrote the screenplay for The Martian and World War Z, was slotted to direct the upcoming Marvel film, X-Force, but following the Disney-Fox merger, “Deadpool” creator Rob Liefeld claimed it was unlikely the film would ever happen. Hey, maybe Goddard can use the free time to check out Bad Times on HBO?

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