- 30 Days of Night box office: David Slade’s Alaska-set vampire thriller is the latest commercial disappointment starring Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down actor Josh Hartnett.
- In other box office news, Hartnett’s Pearl Harbor costar Ben Affleck is the (first-time) director of the generally well-regarded crime thriller Gone Baby Gone, which has had an underwhelming domestic debut.
30 Days of Night box office: David Slade’s vampire thriller is the latest commercial letdown starring Josh Hartnett
Oct. 19–21 weekend box office: With Halloween about ten days away, David Slade’s horror thriller 30 Days of Night, starring Josh Hartnett as an Alaskan sheriff at odds with a gang of bloodthirsty vampires, expectedly topped the domestic chart with $16 million from 2,855 sites as per final studio figures found at boxofficemojo.com.
That’s hardly a great debut for this $30 million production (as always, not including marketing and distribution expenses) released by Sony Pictures. In fact, 30 Days of Night happens to be the latest Josh Hartnett title to underperform, following the box office flops Resurrecting the Champ, Lucky Number Slevin, and The Black Dahlia.
Also in the 30 Days of Night cast: Melissa George, Danny Huston, and Ben Foster. Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie, and Brian Nelson adapted the 2002 horror comic book miniseries written by Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith.
Underwhelming global gross
Update: The David Slade & Josh Hartnett horror thriller 30 Days of Night ultimately collected a mediocre $39.6 million domestically and an equally mediocre $35.9 million internationally. Worldwide total: $75.5 million.
Its top international markets were the United Kingdom/Ireland ($8.8 million), Spain ($4.1 million), Italy ($3.8 million), Russia/CIS ($2.1 million), Mexico ($2.1 million), and Australia ($2 million).
Well-received Ben Affleck crime thriller debuts at a modest no. 6
For the record, rounding out the Top Six movies on this past weekend’s domestic box office chart were:
- At no. 2, Tyler Perry’s moralizing comedy-drama Why Did I Get Married? grossed $12.2 million (down 43 percent on its second weekend). Cume: $39 million. Cast: Tyler Perry and Janet Jackson.
- At no. 3, Andy Fickman’s critically panned sports family comedy The Game Plan grossed $8.2 million (down a modest 26 percent on its fourth weekend). Cume: $69.2 million. Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Madison Pettis, and Kyra Sedgwick.
- At no. 4, Tony Gilroy’s legal thriller Michael Clayton grossed $6.7 million (down 36 percent on its third weekend). Cume: $21.6 million. Cast: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, and Tilda Swinton.
- At no. 5, Tom Brady’s sports satire The Comebacks debuted with a paltry $5.6 million from 2,812 venues. Cast: David Koechner and Carl Weathers. Distributor: Fox Atomic.
- At no. 6, actor-turned-director Ben Affleck’s generally well-regarded crime thriller Gone Baby Gone debuted with a disappointing $5.5 million from 1,713 venues. Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, and Amy Ryan. Distributor: Miramax. Budget: $19 million.
“30 Days of Night Box office: Josh Harnett” endnotes
Unless otherwise noted, “30 Days of Night Box office: Josh Harnett Has Another Flop” box office information via Box Office Mojo. Budget info – which should be taken with a grain of salt – via BOM and/or other sources (e.g., the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Screen Daily, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Deadline.com, etc.).
Comments about 30 Days of Night, The Comebacks, Gone Baby Gone, and other titles being hits/profitable or flops/money-losers at the box office (see paragraph below) are based on the available data about their production budget, additional marketing and distribution expenses (as a general rule of thumb, around 50 percent of the production cost), and worldwide gross (as a general rule of thumb when it comes to the Hollywood studios, around 50–55 percent of the domestic gross and 40 percent of the international gross goes to the distributing/producing companies).
Bear in mind that data regarding rebates, domestic/international sales/pre-sales, and other credits and/or contractual details that help to alleviate/split production costs and apportion revenues are oftentimes unavailable, and that reported international grosses may be incomplete (i.e., not every territory is fully – or even partially – accounted for).
Also bear in mind that ancillary revenues (domestic/global television rights, home video sales, streaming, merchandising, etc.) can represent anywhere between 40–70 percent of a movie’s total take. However, these revenues and their apportionment are only infrequently made public.
Josh Hartnett 30 Days of Night movie image: Sony Pictures.
“30 Days of Night Box office: Josh Harnett Has Another Flop” last updated in October 2022.