Life as We Know It movie with - Life as We Know It movie box office: Starring Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel, and Josh Lucas, Greg Berlanti’s romantic comedy is an underperformer in the domestic market, even when taking into account its “moderate” production budget.
- As it turned out, David Fincher’s well-received Facebook drama The Social Network topped the domestic box office chart for the second consecutive weekend.
Life as We Know It movie box office: Katherine Heigl romantic comedy has disappointing domestic debut
Oct. 8–10 weekend box office: This past Columbus Day weekend was a slow one at the North American (U.S. and Canada only) box office, as none of the three titles opening in wide release managed to reach the (pretty modest) $15 million mark: Warner Bros.’ Life as We Know It, Walt Disney Studios’ Secretariat, and Universal Pictures’ My Soul to Take. The last one, in fact, didn’t even reach $10 million.
Among the three new entries, the least unsuccessful one was Life as We Know It. Directed by Greg Berlanti, and starring Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel, and Josh Lucas, the romantic comedy landed at no. 2 on the box office chart (see further below), grossing $14.5 million from 3,150 theaters according to final studio figures found at boxofficemojo.com.
That doesn’t bode well at all for Life as We Know It, which cost a reported $38 million (as always, not including marketing and distribution expenses).
For comparison’s sake: In early June, Robert Luketic’s $75 million action comedy Killers, starring Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher, debuted with $15.8 million from 2,859 locations. Killers would end its domestic run with a mere $47.1 million.
Also in the Life as We Know It cast: Christina Hendricks, Hayes MacArthur, Sarah Burns, Andy Buckley, Andrew Daly, and Melissa McCarthy.
Not a disaster – but an apparent money-loser all the same
Update: The Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel romantic comedy Life as We Know It ultimately collected $53.4 million domestically and $52.3 million (apparently incomplete) internationally. Worldwide total: $105.7 million.
That global cume was hardly enough for the movie to break even at the box office.
Its top international markets were Australia ($7.3 million), Germany ($5.6 million), the United Kingdom/Ireland ($5.3 million), Mexico ($4.1 million), Spain ($3.6 million), France ($3.1 million), Brazil ($2.5 million), and Russia/CIS ($2.4 million).
Note: Figures for Japan and South Korea are missing from the Box Office Mojo chart. Theoretically, that means Life as We Know It just might have gotten close to breaking even at the global box office.
The Social Network is no. 1 for second consecutive weekend
Since Life as We Know It, Secretariat, and My Soul to Take have all misfired, a holdover was – for the second weekend in a row – the no. 1 movie domestically.
Featuring Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, and Rooney Mara, David Fincher’s well-received The Social Network earned $15.5 million (down a relatively modest 31 percent) from 2,771 locations.
Budgeted at $40–$50 million (depending on the source), The Social Network has brought in a total of $46 million after 10 days. The coveted $100 million milestone remains far in the distance, but if Fincher’s Facebook movie maintains a moderate-to-low drop-off rate – and regains some box office muscle during awards season – it could get there.
“Life as We Know It Movie Box Office” endnotes
Unless otherwise noted, “Life as We Know It Movie Box Office: Spiritless Katherine Heigl” 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 Life as We Know It, The Social Network, 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.
Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel Life as We Know It movie image: Warner Bros.
“Life as We Know It Movie Box Office: Spiritless Katherine Heigl” last updated in February 2023.