XXX: STATE OF THE UNION

XXX: State Of The Union

XXX: State Of The Union was co-financed by Revolution Studios and when the company shut down and its library went on the market, the actual cost of the film was listed as $113.1 million. Revolution’s financing slate agreement with Sony had them contribute 42.5% of the budget and 100% of the marketing costs. Sony distributed the film in the US and most overseas territories. Original XXX helmer Rob Cohen turned down the sequel to direct the box office disaster Stealth and Vin Diesel turned it down because he was prepping The Chronicles of Riddick and did not want to star in back to back sequels.

Sony first dated the picture for May 13, but moved it forward to April 29, where it would bow against The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. XXX: State of the Union was booked very wide into 3,480 theaters and was tracking for a debut north of $20 million. XXX2 received mostly terrible reviews and came in way below expectations with $12,712,272 — one of the worst openings for a film playing in over 3,000 theaters. It placed #3 for the weekend led by The Hitchhiker’s Guide. The sequel fell a steep 56.6% in its second frame to $5,520,628 and dropped 61.3% to $2,134,772 in its third frame and was pulled from release after 5 weeks with only $26,873,932. Sony would be left with about $14.7 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which would leave much of their expensive P&A spend in the red.

Overseas, XXX: State of the Union pulled in poor numbers for such an expensive film and a soft $5 million from the UK posted the strongest showing. The overseas total was $44,148,761 and the poor worldwide total derailed the almost-a-franchise and stopped the studio from going forward with another installment. Director Lee Tamahori’s followup film was also for Revolution and was the expensive flop Next. A belated third installment, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage is scheduled for 2017.