Pan walked the plank over the Columbus Day Weekend.
Warner Bros spent $150 million to bring the Neverland adventure to screens, but the big-budget fantasy mustered a puny $15.5 million opening. That debut puts Pan alongside The Fantastic Four and Tomorrowland in the pantheon of the year’s most punishing flops.
“It’s a huge misfire,” said Jeff Bock, box office analyst with Exhibitor Relations, adding: “We won’t see another Peter Pan film for awhile.”
With Pan finishing in third place, the top five was rounded out by Warner Bros’ The Intern and Lionsgate’s Sicario, which earned $8.7 million and $7.3 million, respectively. The Intern has generated $49.6 million in receipts, while Sicario’s total stands at $26.7 million.
In limited release, Universal’s Steve Jobs scored, pulling in $521,000 across four theatres for a per-screen average of $130,236. That ranks as the best theatre average of the year, and nicely positions the film about the Apple co-founder for its wide release launch on October 23.
We won’t see another Peter Pan film for a while
“This is a movie that’s executed so well that you’re not seeing a biography of a man, so much as you’re seeing a work of art,” said Nicholas Carpou, Universal’s domestic distribution chief.
Bruised by poor reviews and the continued strength of Hotel Transylvania 2, Pan failed to deliver family crowds. Roughly 55 per cent of its opening audience was female and 52 per cent of ticket buyers were over 25 years old. The film rolled out across 3,515 locations. Pan was originally slated to open in July, but Warner Bros pushed the film back into October citing the need for more time to complete the visual effects work. The film’s cast includes Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara and Garrett Hedlund. Joe Wright, best known for prestige fare like Atonement, directed the picture.
Pan’s failure continues a rocky stretch for Warner Bros, which green-lit the picture with ambitions to turn it into a family-friendly franchise. The studio has suffered a string of pricey missteps in recent months, losing tens of millions on the likes of We Are Your Friends and Jupiter Ascending.
In the case of Pan, overseas audiences could cushion the blow and the film has scored a release in China, but a picture like this needs to do at least $400 million to break even. That’s a tough figure to hit.
“It’s going to take a lot overseas to help this,” said Phil Contrino, vice president and chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “I don’t see it holding up next weekend. It doesn’t have the space to rebound.”