I'm curious about this as well.
I keep seeing articles and videos that says the films bombed, but did they really? Maybe some of these defined bombed films are not accurate, maybe they didn't actually make a loss but less profit than the studio expected/wishes?
These are the so-called bombed films, I'm no expert on how profit margin works in film industry but quick wiki shows
Little Mermaid - Budget 297m, Box office 570m
Antman - Budget 200m, Box office 476m
Indiana Jones - Budget 300m, Box office 385m
Many of the videos/articles claims the budget doesn't include marketing and other stuffs that actually balloons the cost to 2x or even 2.5x of movie budget that is shown. But what is the source to these claims and are these claims even real? Obviously studios don't get ALL of the box office money, maybe only a certain percentage that is split between them and the theaters.
Out of the 3 examples above, I think only Indiana Jones make an out right loss. The other two probably still turned a profit, maybe just tiny.
imho, movies are only a out right bomb, if box office is BELOW movie budget displayed. Which not as many of these films are in these situation.
Again, I stress I know nothing about how the profit margin works in film industry and above is just an opinion of someone that reads these "bombing" news, which I think majority of people are.