ALONE IN THE DARK

Alone In The Dark

Director Uwe Boll cemented his infamous status with his second major release Alone In The Dark (and its seemingly permanent position on the IMDB Bottom 100). In 2003 Dr. Boll struck a deal with Artisan Entertainment for use of their distribution resources to release his video game adaptations House Of The Dead and what would be his followup feature Alone In The Dark. Lionsgate purchased Artisan just a few months later at the end of 2003 and the mini-major would have to be associated with this stinker. Alone In The Dark was financed for $20 million by a now defunct German tax shelter fund that Boll set up and the Canadian company Brightlight Pictures.

Lionsgate dated the pic for January 28 and it would bow against another genre entry Hide And Seek. Tracking was pointing to a high single digit opening weekend, but Alone In The Dark received some of the worst reviews imaginable and the pic placed #12 for the weekend with a miserable $2,834,421. After the dead on arrival opening, Lions Gate co-prexy Tom Ortenberg quickly pointed out that Lionsgate was only distributing for a fee and Boll had secured the funds for all distribution expenses. Alone In The Dark also was slapped with a rare F cinemascore from audiences. The movie sank 69.2% in its second frame to $873,102 and was pulled out of release after its third week with only $5,178,569. Boll would see returned about $2.8 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, plus fees to Lionsgate, which would not even cover the cost of striking release prints for theaters or any of the millions spent on marketing.

Overseas the film grossed a terrible $321,458 in Germany and pulled in a total of $5,264,239 from a handful of distributors and went straight to video in most major markets. Boll produced a cheap straight to video sequel in 2008.