The Thing
| Budget: $38 million | Financed by: Universal; Morgan Creek; Strike Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $16,928,670 | Domestic Distributor: Universal/Morgan Creek |
| Overseas Gross: $14,576,617 | Directed by: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. |
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead | Produced by: Marc Abraham |
The Thing was co-financed and co-distributed by Universal and Morgan Creek and received some additional funding from Strike Entertainment. This $38 million production opened in the US after delays, reshoots and CG tinkering to a terrible $8,493,665 — placing #3 behind Real Steel and another remake Footloose. The Thing was front loaded opening weekend and sank 63.9% in its second weekend to $3,069,875 when Paranormal Activity 3 opened and it quickly burned out with just $16,928,670 after only five weeks in release. Overseas, Universal distributed in 28 territories and the filmed fared worse totaling just $14.5 million with a worldwide total of $31.5 million — which would leave Universal and Morgan Creek with about $17.3 million after theaters take their cut of the gross. Most of the expensive worldwide marketing spend would be a loss and the budget unaccounted for from the theatrical receipts. Universal added a The Thing maze to their Halloween Horror Nights at their theme park to promote the film to a lot of wasted effort. Morgan Creek had only two films released in 2011 after three years of suspending film production, the other being the flop Dream House (which was released three weeks prior) and Morgan Creek has not put another film back into production. Domestic video sales came to $9.3 million (less after resellers take their cut and manufacturing costs).