- Sucker Punch box office: Zack Snyder extravaganza featuring young women in tights is about to become the director’s latest major money-loser. In the cast: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, and Vanessa Hudgens.
Sucker Punch box office: Zack Snyder’s latest display of cinematic excess fails to lure domestic moviegoers
March 25–27 weekend box office (cont.): Although 20th Century Fox’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules was the no. 1 movie on the North American (U.S. and Canada only) chart, this past weekend’s big box office news was the feeble commercial performance of the no. 2 title, Warner Bros.’ Sucker Punch.
Directed by Zack Snyder and starring Emily Browning as a young mental patient living in a fantasy world where she and her fellow inmates are sex slaves in tights, the critically excoriated Sucker Punch raked in $19.1 million from 3,033 locations according to final studio figures found at boxofficemojo.com.
Whereas in its first three days out Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules managed to surpass its modest production budget, Sucker Punch will find it impossible to match – let alone recover – its reported $82 million price tag (as always, not including marketing and distribution expenses) in the domestic market. International moviegoers are its only hope.
Sucker Punch vs. Watchmen
For comparison’s sake: Distributed domestically by Warner Bros. (Paramount Pictures was a coproducing company), and starring Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, and Carla Gugino, Zack Snyder’s previous live-action film, Watchmen, opened with $55.2 million from 3,611 venues in March 2009.
The actioner ended its run with $107.5 million domestically, in addition to $77.9 million internationally. Worldwide total: $185.4 million – generally speaking a strong figure, but far from enough for Watchmen to recover its $130 million budget. (See further below more information about money-losing/profitable releases.)
Zack Snyder movies’ shaky commercial appeal
Considering that Zack Snyder’s 2010 computer-animated fantasy adventure Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole also turned out to be a commercial dud, Warners must be nervous about the director’ next, the mega-budget Man of Steel, starring British actor Henry Cavill as the latest big-screen incarnation of Superman.
And that would be fully understandable.
Besides Emily Browning as the Walter Mittyesque mental patient – known as “Babydoll” (no connection to Carroll Baker’s 1956 character in the two-word Baby Doll) – Sucker Punch features Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Oscar Isaac, Jon Hamm, Watchmen’s Carla Gugino, and veteran Scott Glenn (Nashville, Apocalypse Now).
Global dud
Update: Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch ultimately collected a measly $36.4 million domestically and an estimated $53.4 million internationally. Worldwide total: $89.8 million – like Watchmen’s global gross, far from enough for the psychological fantasy actioner to recover its costs.
Sucker Punch’s top international markets were France ($5 million), Australia ($4.6 million), Germany ($4.2 million), Russia/CIS ($3.8 million), and the United Kingdom/Ireland ($3.8 million).
”Sucker Punch Box Office: Zack Snyder Appeal Increasingly Shaky” notes
Besides Henry Cavill, Man of Steel also stars three-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams (Junebug, 2005; etc.) as Lois Lane, and another Oscar nominee, Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road, 2008), as General Zod.
Unless otherwise noted, “Sucker Punch Box Office: Zack Snyder Appeal Increasingly Shaky” 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 Sucker Punch 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.
Vanessa Hudgens Sucker Punch movie image: Clay Enos | Warner Bros.
“Sucker Punch Box Office: Zack Snyder Appeal Increasingly Shaky” last updated in October 2023.
5 comments
think Renny Harlin, super hot in the 80’s, lusted after the by the studios (who knows why) then “Cutthroat Island” was his emperor with no clothes moments, whts he got to direct since then?
While it’s true that “Sucker Puch” didn’t do so well at the box office, it’s a hit among Zack Snyder fans such as myself. Us Zach Snyder fans love “Sucker Punch,” just as we love his “300” and “Watchmen.”
“Sucker Punch” will no doubt be remembered as a cult classic.
Remember 1999’s “Fight Club”? That didn’t do so well at the box office either but now, over 10 years, it’s still remembered and is a cult classic while the biggest hits of that year are long forgotten.
And as for CHW’s comment above: CHW, you are obviously jealous that those young female leads have hot bodies and so I take it that you don’t. In Zach Snyder’s “300” you had all these hot attractive men with perfect bodies, 6-packs and all, roaming around with no shirts on and bikini-style shorts. Am I offended by that? Not at all. Men sex objects? Sure. But so what. I’m not so self centered to hate those actors or Snyder for showing those studs in “300” as sex objects. And I’m no stud myself. In fact I’m seriously over weight and am currently enrolled in a weight loss program. And those half-naked studs shown in “300” don’t make me bitter and jealous but rather inspire me to lose weight and improve my body. Chill angry jealous woman!
Why did they advertise this POS movie to female audiences? I couldn’t go to a movie in the last 8 months without being insulted by the crappy ads. Women are 52% of the population not some pi$$ a$$ minority. We don’t want to sit through movies where the arrogant male director uses his actresses like pathetic sex puppets. You would have to be stupid to put Snyder in charge of any movie with female characters. I never want to see any of these “actresses” (idiot puppets) in film again. And I didn’t even see Sucker Punch I just got the ads for it crammed up my a$$.
synder is a complete hack and should never direct a feature ever again! not even softcore porn
I’m not sure this means that Snyder will be booted off Supes’ just because of Sucker Punch. The Cimino/Heaven’s Gate example I understand, but bear in mind, Spielberg made 1941 before he made Raiders of the Lost Ark. Snyder already has two solid movies behind him (300 and Watchmen) so kicking him off the project would seem a little abrupt.
Also, compare Snyder with Michael Bay, in that Bay suffered the bomb The Island before Spielberg reigned him in on Transformers. Christopher Nolan, like Spielberg, should work to bring out the best in Snyder (he understands pacing, mood and his visual flair should yield some interesting results, given Superman’s heavy overtones of Americana) whilst preventing Snyder from unleashing his id, as we’ve witnessed the negative effects of with Sucker Punch.