THE BOX

The Box

The Box was financed mostly by Media Rights Capital and also Radar Pictures for upwards of $30 million and Warner Bros signed on as US distributor, from a three picture deal with MRC. Pre-sales limited Media Rights Capital and Radar’s investment risk. Coming off the commercial and critical drubbing of Southland Tales, director Richard Kelly set out to make a more commercial project that would receive wide distribution and have an easy marketing hook. The Box proved the opposite, earning a rare F cinemascore from audiences in the US and judging from that audience response, test screenings must have shaken WB’s confidence, as they shifted The Box all over the release calendar. Warner Bros originally scheduled The Box for a March 2009 release and then pushed it back to a Sept 11, 2009 release date, but then moved it back to March 2009 before delaying it to October 30 and then pushing it back another week to November 6.

Reviews for The Box were mixed and it bowed into a crowded market against A Christmas Carol, The Men Who Stare at Goats and would be directly competing for auds with The Fourth Kind. It was booked into 2,635 theaters and was dead on arrival with $7,571,417 — placing #6 for the weekend led by A Christmas Carol. The movie took a large 58.3% decline in its second frame to $3,158,368 and The Box fell a steep 84.3% to $494,345 in its third frame. The domestic cume was $15,051,977. Warner Bros would see returned about $8.2 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, leaving much of their P&A costs in the red.

Overseas The Box pulled in weak numbers in every territory grossing $18.2 million across numerous distributors and going straight to video in Germany.