Well, Warner Bros. really took it in the teeth this weekend. Their Peter Pan origin story, “Pan,” by director Joe Wright, which cost $150 million, bellyflopped big time at the box office with a paltry $15.5 million on 3,515 screens (even after tracking had it marked around $20 million). That’s basically one of the biggest wide release flops of the year if not the biggest — “Jupiter Ascending,” “Tomorrowland” and “Fantastic Four” all did higher numbers in their dismal opening weekends.
The film did score a B+ Cinemascore which is the mild silver-lining here, but THR already reports that WB is on track to probably lose $100 million on the film (probably more when you add another $60 million or so of promotion and advertising). The trade also says that reshoots on the film never materialized, the studio realizing perhaps, they had a turkey on their hands. And the writing was on the wall for a while now. The movie was set to be a big summer release, but was then suddenly pushed back to October with only a few weeks notice; awareness at the time was bad and the studio did little to change that over the next five months. Poor reviews didn’t help either, as “Pan” was largely panned across the board (including our review).
The rest of the weekend was rather uneventful though “The Martian” kept the #1 spot, with a terrific and small -31.9% drop, for the second week in a row. The 20th Century Fox, Ridley Scott-helmed movie is at an excellent $227.8 million worldwide and it will easily clear $300M. Finally moving into wide release, awards buzz and critical plaudits couldn’t really help Sony’s “The Walk” from director Robert Zemeckis which couldn’t really connect with audiences taking in a small $3.6 million from 1300 screens. Together with "Everest," the film is an example of an IMAX exclusive bow before a regular wide release not really paying off the dividends studios might’ve hoped for.
Critical buzz and awards talk did however help Universal’s “Steve Jobs,” by director Danny Boyle. It’s limited release opening was akin to a new highly-anticipated Apple product launch. Smashing the 2015 per screen average record, the Aaron Sorkin-penned film grossed a spectacular $521k from just 4 theaters — a $130k per screen average. That’s the fifth highest limited release per screen average, and just a shade lower than "Moonrise Kingdom." On the polar opposite side of the speciality field, Focus Features “Trash,” from filmmaker Stephen Daldry took in $10,000 from 17 screens for a brutal $588 PSA—one of the worst per screen averages ever. Certainly in the top 20 and the third lowest limited opening of 2015.
1. The Martian— $37,000,000 ($108,710,329)
2. Hotel Transylvania 2 — $20,300,000 ($116,821,641)
3. Pan — $15,530,000
4. The Intern — $8,660,000 ($49,574,047)
5. Sicario — $7,350,000 ($26,706,016)
6. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials — $5,250,000 ($70,643,390)
7. The Walk — $3,650,000 ($6,361,499)
8. Black Mass — $3,130,000 ($57,568,791)
9. Everest — $3,030,000 ($38,210,215)
10. The Visit — $2,420,000 ($61,054,525)
