CAPTIVITY

Captivity

Captivity was financed for an estimated $17 million by newly formed Foresight Unlimited and Russia based Ramco and the film was picked up by After Dark Films for a US release and Lionsgate would distribute on home video. Seven Arts Intl. sold worldwide rights with Foresight. After Dark Films would make every wrong move in releasing the film, stirring up a tidal wave of bad buzz. They ordered reshoots to turn the thriller into torture porn, which they would later regard as the reason the film flopped and began a marketing campaign that used images that were rejected by the MPAA. The images were ordered to be removed and the film’s rating process was suspended for a month, so the film could not open in its original May 18 date in wide release without a MPAA rating. Captivity did eventually receive its R rating and After Dark Films was going to distribute the pic through Lionsgate, but ended up using rent-a-distributor Freestyle Releasing. Lionsgate also forced After Dark producer Courtney Solomon to submit all promotional material for approval after the MPAA stunt — but that didn’t stop him putting on what he envisioned to be a truly debauched premiere with Suicide Girls and just like this movie, it turned out to be lame. Captivity opened in 1,061 theaters to bad press and empty theaters as counter-programming to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It pulled in a terrible $1,429,100 — placing #12 for the weekend. Captivity sank 77.7% in its second weekend to $318,545 and was out of release after just three weeks with $2,626,800. After theaters take their cut of the gross, that wouldn’t put a dent in After Dark’s print and advertising costs and the pointless reshoots just added red ink. The film pulled in $8.2 million overseas across numerous distributors, with $1.7 million from Italy posting the highest gross. Captivity went straight to video in Germany and most smaller markets. Domestic home video sales were $4 million.