LAND OF THE LOST

Land Of The Lost

“Land of the Lost was just crap. I mean, there was no excuse for it.” “Land of the Lost was a huge loss. We Misfired. We were wrong.”

-Ron Meyer, Universal Studios President

Universal and Relativity co-financed this $100+ million film and after a massive worldwide marketing spend, Land Of The Lost, well, lost both companies a fortune. Padding the huge loss, Universal partnered with Subway, Marriott, Land O’Frost lunchmeats and Pop Rocks, where the companies would throw away $30 million to tie in their products to promote this turkey. Land of the Lost opened in the US against The Hangover and it came in way below expectations with $18,837,350 — placing #3, miles behind The Hangover and Pixar’s Up. Audiences were no kinder than critics and gave it a poor C+ cinemascore and Land Of The Lost dropped 52.3% in its second weekend to $8,994,030. The film closed with just $49,438,370 and did miserable numbers overseas with only $19.3 million. Universal would see only about $37.7 million of the worldwide total after theaters take their portion of the gross, leaving much of the P&A spend at a loss and the budget wouldn’t be touched from the theatrical receipts. Universal Pictures Chairman Marc Shmuger would be replaced after a string of recent Universal flops, including Duplicity, State of Play, Funny People and the out of control budgets for the as of yet to be released The Wolfman and Green Zone.