The Next Three Days Box Office: 1 of Worst Russell Crowe Bombs

The Next Three Days movie with Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks: Domestic box office dud.

The Next Three Days box office: Russell Crowe has one of his worst opening weekends so far this century

Nov. 19–21 weekend box office (cont.): Despite the mammoth opening-weekend take of Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, North American (U.S. and Canada only) box office receipts – an estimated $197 million – were down a hefty 24 percent when compared to the same weekend last year, which boasted the debuts of Summit Entertainment’s global blockbuster The Twilight Saga: New Moon, starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, and Warners’ sleeper blockbuster The Blind Side, starring “top box office draw” Sandra Bullock.

And let’s not forget that if inflation were taken into account, things would have looked even worse. After all, there was a significant movie-ticket-price hike last spring.

Now, no one movie is to blame for this year’s (relatively speaking) underwhelming pre-Thanksgiving domestic box office, but Lionsgate’s new release The Next Three Days, which has received generally rotten notices, sure didn’t help matters any.

Directed by an Oscar (co)winner, Paul Haggis (Best Original screenplay for Crash, 2005), and starring another Oscar winner, Russell Crowe (Best Actor for Gladiator, 2000), the action thriller grossed a dismal $6.5 million from 2,564 theaters – at no. 5 on the weekend’s domestic chart as per final studio figures found at boxofficemojo.com. Budget: $30 million (as always, not including marketing or distribution expenses).

Second-worst (wide) opening weekend

In all, The Next Three Days is one more domestic box office disappointment for Russell Crowe, following the costly Robin Hood (cume: $105.3 million), Body of Lies ($39.4 million), State of Play ($37 million), 3:10 to Yuma ($53.6 million), A Good Year (a disastrous $7.5 million), and Cinderella Man ($61.6 million).

In fact, in the last decade only Ridley Scott’s A Good Year had a weaker wide debut ($3.7 million in November 2006).

There’s more: Since Peter Weir’s Oscar-nominated 2003 period adventure Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the only Russell Crowe star vehicle that performed above expectations (though hardly a hit in relation to its cost) was Ridley Scott’s real-life-based crime drama American Gangster, which ended its domestic run with $130.1 million in 2007.

Besides Russell Crowe, The Next Three Days also features Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Michael Buie, Brian Dennehy, RZA, Daniel Stern, Ty Simpkins, James Ransone, and Oscar nominee Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List, 1993).

International market saves The Next Three Days from total disaster

Update: The Paul Haggis-Russell Crowe collaboration The Next Three Days ultimately collected $21.1 million domestically and – surprisingly – more than twice that amount internationally, an estimated $46.3 million. Worldwide total: $67.4 million, or surely better than a total disaster though not enough for the action thriller to break even at the box office.

Its top international markets were Italy ($4.4 million), Germany ($4.2 million), the United Kingdom/Ireland ($3.9 million), Russia/CIS ($3.1 million), Spain ($2.8 million), and Brazil ($2.5 million). In Australia, the New Zealand-born Russell Crowe’s de facto home country, The Next Three Days flopped with $1.9 million.

Note: France’s Box Office Mojo total ($1.3 million) may be incomplete, while Japan is missing from the list.

The other three titles among the Top Five

For the record, the other three titles among this past weekend’s Top Five in the domestic market were:

• At no. 2, Tom McGrath’s animated supervillain comedy Megamind with $16 million (down 45 percent on its third weekend). Cume: $109.3 million. Voice cast: Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and Brad Pitt.
• At no. 3, Tony Scott’s action thriller Unstoppable with $13 million (down 43 percent on its second weekend). Cume: $41.9 million. Cast: Chris Pine and Denzel Washington.
• At no. 4, Todd Phillips’ road comedy Due Date with $8.9 million (down 42 percent on its third weekend). Cume: $72.4 million. Cast: Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis.

”The Next Three Days Box Office: 1 of Worst Russell Crowe Bombs” notes

Unless otherwise noted, “The Next Three Days Box Office: 1 of Worst Russell Crowe Bombs” 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 The Next Three Days 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.

Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks The Next Three Days movie image: Lionsgate.

“The Next Three Days Box Office: 1 of Worst Russell Crowe Bombs” last updated in September 2023.