the word is : bankable
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https://aboutactorjonhamm.blogspot.com/2021/06/hamm-and-fletch.html
Million dollar arm : leading role
The budget for Million Dollar Arm was $25 million. With the new Disney model of releasing fewer films, but with colossal budgets looking for colossal returns, Disney decided to fund this mid-budget production they call ‘brand deposits.’ Films smaller in scale that retain a certain Disney quality that makes audiences appreciate the Disney label. Disney studio Chairman Alan Horn said the test screenings for Million Dollar Arm scored higher than any film he tested at both Disney and his 12 year tenure at Warner Bros.
The picture was dated for May 16, 2014 and to spread positive word of mouth, the mouse house gave the movie a nation wide sneak preview the Saturday before its release, but attendance was light and Million Dollar Arm was tracking for a modest $10M – $12M bow. It was booked as counter-programming to Godzilla, landed mixed reviews and pulled in a soft $10,515,659 — placing #4 for the weekend. It fell a modest 33.7% to $6,968,980 in its second weekend and continued with respectable weekly declines, but closed its domestic run with a disappointing $36,457,627.
Since the domestic gross could a baseball themed picture into profit, there was practically no path to profitability in the international market. Million Dollar Arm pulled in only $2.7 million in overseas grosses for Disney and even with part of the movie filmed in India and geared toward the Indian market, it managed only $492,240 in the country. The worldwide total was $39.2 million, leaving Disney with about $21.5 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross — which falls tens of millions short of Disney’s P&A spend and leaves the budget in the red.
Keeping up with the Joneses
Director Greg Mottola did his big screen career no favors from helming this hack work, which was originally dated for an April 1st release, but the picture was order back for reshoots and pushed back. Keeping Up With The Joneses was later rescheduled for October 21st — only three weeks after the long delayed Zach Galifianakis starrer Masterminds would open. FOX gave this stinker a strong marketing push and invested $17.56M into national TV ads (as per iSpotTV) and millions more into other traditional means of marketing, with a domestic P&A spend in the $30 million range. In the week up to its release, Keeping Up With The Joneses was tracking for an opening near $12 million, but as atrocious reviews began to pour in, estimates lowered to $6 – $8 million.
This disposable studio comedy opened over the crowded weekend against Boo! A Madea Halloween, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and Ouija: Origin of Evil and was dead on arrival with $5,461,475 — placing #7 for the weekend led by Boo!. Keeping Up With The Joneses also posted the 8th worst opening for a movie booked into over 3,000 theaters. There was a modest 37.9% second weekend decline to $3,390,107 but then it sank 67.8% in its third frame to $1,092,302 and promptly lost most of its theater count. The domestic run closed with just $14,904,426.
Keeping Up With The Joneses was clearly a comedy designed for the domestic market and predictably pulled in soft numbers overseas. The offshore cume was only $15 million. The worldwide gross was $29.9M and FOX would see returned about $16.4M after theaters take their percentage of the receipts — which would leave much of the global P&A expenses in the red and the budget at a loss.
Lucy In The Sky was positioned as a potential awards player and dated for October 4, 2019 and the film was set to premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival. The prestige film landed awful reviews at TIFF, killing off any award hype and placing it in a commercial dead zone. The story, which was a loose retelling of astronaut Lisa Nowak — who after spending 13 days in space, went bananas back on earth, put on a diaper and drove across the country to kidnap her lover’s lover. The film inexplicably removed the diaper wearing from the narrative, which was what made this bizarre story infamous in the first place and what was expected to be a strange black comedy was just a stilted drama.
Searchlight booked it into 37 theaters and planned on a nationwide expansion over the upcoming weeks. Lucy In The Sky opened with a miserable $54,058 and a $1,461 per screen average. The following weekend the location count was expanded to 198 and it posted $78,451 with a truly dreadful $396 per screen average for the weekend. Lets break that per screen average down — which averages out to $132 per day. With four showings per day, that’s $33 per screening (2 people). The third weekend had the theater count rise to 231 and those unlucky exhibitors who previously inked a deal with Searchlight to screen this movie nobody wanted to see, saw even worse results. Lucy posted $55,396 with a $239 per screen average and then promptly lost most of its theater count. It was pulled from release after 4 weeks with only $319,976 in theatrical receipts.
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