LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA’HOOLE

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Warner Bros and Village Roadshow financed the animated Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole and after a 40% Australian tax rebate the budget was estimated at $80 million. Warner Bros distributed Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole in the US and even after an expensive ad spend, the film opened with just $16,112,211 — coming in behind Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and a week after the cheap animated dud Alpha & Omega. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole saw modest weekly declines, but closed its run with a disappointing $55,675,313. Warner Bros would see back about $30.6 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which would likely cover most of the ad spend, but wouldn’t put a dent in the budget. Overseas the film did a bit better than its US run, but still only pulled in mediocre numbers with $84.3 million which was not strong enough to lift the weak US run out of the red. Australia based Village Roadshow distributed in their home country to a soft $1,699,808 opening weekend, coming in second for the weekend behind Despicable Me, which was in its fourth week of release. Legend of the Guardians closed its run with a poor $4,669,462. A planned franchise was aborted after the disappointing worldwide numbers. Warner Bros and Village Roadshow had a string of animated fare that flopped, beginning with Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, then Legend of the Guardians and 2011’s Happy Feet Two.