Tom Hanks’ Cloud Atlas box office: One of Hanks’ weakest wide-release debuts ever
Oct. 28 update: Featuring Academy Award winners Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, and Jim Broadbent (plus Hugh Grant), and directed by The Matrix’s Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’s Tom Tykwer, Cloud Atlas opened below expectations (see further below) in North America this pre-Halloween weekend, Oct. 26–28.
Looking at Friday grosses, Cloud Atlas seemed poised to take in somewhere between $11–$12 million. However, according to Warner Bros. estimates reported at boxofficemojo.com, by Sunday night the time- and mind-bending drama will have collected a meager $9.4 million from 2,008 locations (including 105 IMAX screens), averaging only $4,681 per theater.
If studio estimates are accurate, Cloud Atlas will be trailing not only Ben Affleck’s political thriller Argo (with a less-than-expected $12.4 million, down 25 percent) but also Sony Pictures’ Hotel Transylvania ($9.5 million).
Why did Cloud Atlas underperform?
Why did Cloud Atlas underperform?
Well, one could blame everything from Hurricane Sandy and Frankenstorm to Halloween costume parties and the just-as-circus-like U.S. presidential election. But chances are that the real culprit was not bad weather or Mitt Romney, but tepid word of mouth – a mediocre C+ CinemaScore – for a movie with a “disjointed” plotline – if it can be called that.
Anyhow, whatever it was that Christopher Nolan’s Inception had going for it, Cloud Atlas sure lacked it.
Cloud Atlas’ originally estimated $12 million first-weekend take wouldn’t have been bad at all for something as unusual as the Tykwer-Wachowski Starship effort. But once again, if studio estimates are correct, $9.4 million is an undeniably poor North American start for a movie that cost a reported $102 million (as always, not including marketing and distribution expenses).
On the positive side, on its first weekend out Cloud Atlas grossed nearly as much as Darren Aronofsky’s similarly framed The Fountain brought in ($10.1 million, or about $12.5 million adjusted for inflation) during its entire run in 2006 – despite the presence of Hugh Jackman and one of that year’s Oscar winners, Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener).
Having said that, since Cloud Atlas could theoretically end its domestic run with less than $20 million, its only chance of at least matching its production budget at the box office is the international market. In the coming months, the Tykwer- Wachowski Starship movie is going to be slowly rolled out around the world.
Playing it safe, Warner Bros. acquired the domestic rights to the independently financed production for a reported $15 million. Focus Features International will handle (at least some) foreign territories.
One of Tom Hanks’ worst opening-weekend box office performers
Notably, Cloud Atlas has scored one of Tom Hanks’ weakest wide-release debuts (adjusted for inflation) since the beginning of his movie career in the early 1980s.
If studio estimates are accurate, Cloud Atlas trailed not only the Hanks-Julia Roberts summer 2011 flop Larry Crowne ($13.1 million) but also the modest performer Charlie Wilson’s War ($9.7 million). In fact, one has to go back all the way to Brian De Palma’s 1990 bomb The Bonfire of the Vanities’ ($4.2 million, or about $8 million adjusted) to find a lower Hanks debut in wide release.
The only two other Tom Hanks movies to suffer lower opening-weekend grosses than Cloud Atlas in the last (almost) three decades are the family drama Nothing in Common (1986, about $7 million adjusted) and the poorly received comedy remake The Man with One Red Shoe (1985, about $7 million adjusted).
True, both had shorter running times (and more daily showings) than Cloud Atlas; however, both were screened at about 1,000 fewer locations as well. (The number of available seats – movie-theater sizes have changed dramatically in the last thirty years – is, of course, unknown.)
Cloud Atlas currently has a mediocre 40 percent approval rating and 6/10 average among Rotten Tomatoes’ top critics.
Note: Considering that Cloud Atlas was only $100,000 behind Hotel Transylvania, it’s possible that the two movies may have their placements on the domestic box office chart switched around when weekend actuals are released on Monday.
Oct. 27 p.m.
Ben Affleck’s Argo to top domestic box office on third weekend out
Now on its third weekend out, Ben Affleck’s Argo is expected to top the U.S. and Canada box office this very slow pre-Halloween weekend, Oct. 26–28. Last weekend, Argo trailed Paranormal Activity 4; the previous weekend, it trailed Taken 2. This weekend, barring a major upset, Argo will beat the previous two weekend box office champs, plus newcomers Silent Hill: Revelation 3D and Cloud Atlas.
Also worth noting is that if Argo does reach $13 million this weekend, that’ll mean another quite modest drop-off rate: around 20 percent, which would make it sturdier than Affleck’s 2010 heis thriller The Town, which had a bigger start than Argo ($23.8 million vs. $19.5 million), but then went on to lose 35–38 percent of its take in each of the two ensuing weekends.
Besides, unlike The Town, Argo may surpass the $100 million milestone at the North American box office. Internationally, things look iffier, at least for the time being: Argo had modest openings in several South American and East Asian countries. The Town, by the way, was a much bigger hit in North America than elsewhere ($92.2 million vs. $61.8 million.)
In addition to Ben Affleck, the Argo cast includes Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, and Alan Arkin. Affleck is one of the film’s producers, and so is George Clooney.
Silent Hill: Revelation 3D no. 2 on Friday
I should add that it was initially thought that Silent Hill: Revelation 3D had topped the domestic box office on Friday; as per studio estimates, however, that didn’t happen. The horror movie earned a less-than-expected $3.5 million at 2,933 venues. For comparison’s sake: back in 2006, Silent Hill grossed $8.1 million (not adjusted for inflation) on opening day.
Directed by Michael J. Bassett, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D will likely pull in at most $10 million over the weekend. The impressive cast of this Open Road Films release includes Kit Harington, Adelaide Clemens, Deborah Kara Unger, Carrie-Anne Moss, Sean Bean, Radha Mitchell, and veteran Malcolm McDowell.
Oct. 27 early a.m.
Victoria Justice’s Fun Size, Gerard Butler’s Chasing Mavericks bomb
This pre-Halloween weekend’s major flops will be Paramount’s comedy Fun Size, featuring Victoria Justice, which is expected to earn $4–$4.5 million at 3,014 locations over the weekend ($1.4 million on Friday), and the Gerard Butler “inspirational” surfing movie Chasing Mavericks, which should bring in a disastrous $2.5 million at 2,002 sites ($800,000 on Friday).
Both Fun Size and Chasing Mavericks, which also features Jonny Weston and Elisabeth Shue, may end up grossing less than their studios’ already quite modest expectations. Distributor 20th Century Fox, for instance, is reportedly expecting $3 million for Chasing Mavericks.
Adelaide Clemens, Kit Harington Silent Hill: Revelation 3D image: Open Road Films.
Tom Hanks Cloud Atlas image: Warner Bros.