DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was financed by Miramax for $28m and the film would sit on the shelf for over a year after Disney sold off Miramax and declined to distribute it. Pathe sold the foreign rights, which sold well and FilmDistrict purchased US rights. FilmDistrict spent an estimated $20m on marketing and opened the film in 2,760 theaters to a soft $8,525,728. Audiences gave the film a poor C- cinemascore, which isn’t unusual for a horror film and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark declined a modest 39.1% to $5,195,268 in its second weekend and then fell a steep 58.3% in its third frame to $2,166,846. The film ended its run with $24,046,682 and after theaters take their cut of the gross, FilmDistrict would see back about $12m, leaving part of their ad spend and acquisition cost in the red. After home video sales and TV rights (usually 10% - 12% of box office), they probably came close to breaking even. Overseas the horror film pulled in a weak $15m across numerous distributors, while going straight to video in major territories like France and Germany.

Buy Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (+ UltraViolet Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]