TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE

Team America: World Police

Team America: World Police was financed by Paramount and received some coin from the German tax shelter fund MMDP GmbH & Co. Project KG for $32 million. Paramount used their sister networks, Comedy Central, MTV, BET and Spike to heavily promote Team America. Nationwide sneak previews of the film were held a week before its release at 600 locations to help spread word of mouth and the R rated puppet movie was tracking very strong going into domestic release, between $18 - $20 million. Team America: World Police came in far below those expectations with a weak $12,120,358 in 2,539 theaters — placing #3 for the weekend led by holdovers Shark Tale and Friday Night Lights. The pic proved to have weak legs and declined 47.3% to $6,388,442 in its second frame and 51.7% in its third weekend to $3,083,704. It closed its run with a disappointing $32,786,074 leaving Paramount with about $18 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which would not cover the P&A expenses and leave the budget in the red. Overseas, Team America: World Police pulled in a decent $9.3 million in the UK through UIP (joint distribution between Paramount and Universal), but flopped in every other market. The film grossed a poor $1.2 million in Germany and a miserable $388,063 from France and besides a soft $3.7 million from Australia, every other market pulled in less than a million dollars. The overseas cume was $18,121,348 which would also not cover the P&A costs. Team America was another under performer for Paramount, which had been in a three year slump and one month after it opened (and three days before the Paramount bomb Alfie opened), the head of Paramount Sherry Lansing announced she would soon exit her post after 12 years on the job. Producer Scott Rudin saw three Paramount titles do poor box office in 2004: The Stepford Wives, The Manchurian Candidate and Team America.