JERSEY BOYS

Jersey Boys

Jersey Boys was in development at Sony for years with Jon Favreau attached as director, but it never materialized. Producer Graham King took the project from Sony to Warner Bros with Favreau still attached. Warner Bros then sent Jersey Boys into turnaround in 2012, as the studio thought the project had limited international appeal — which would end up being the case when Clint Eastwood boarded the project and it quickly went into production. Jersey Boys was co-financed by Warner Bros and Brett Ratner’s RatPac, in which RatPac has a 25% stake in the $41.8 million budgeted film adaptation of the hit Broadway show.

Warner Bros opened Jersey Boys in the US in 2,905 theaters as adult summer counter-programming to popcorn fare and it was tracking for a mid-teens opening. The audience skewed even older than expected and it pulled in a soft $13,319,371 — placing a distant #4 for the weekend led by new opener Think Like A Man Too and holdover 22 Jump Street. The film declined 42.1% in its second frame to $7,712,264 and a modest 33.2% third weekend drop to $5,155,145 but ended its run with a disappointing $47,047,013. After theaters take their percentage of the gross Warner Bros would see back about $25.8 million, which would not cover their domestic P&A spend.

Jersey Boys did poorly outside of the US market, earning only $20,622,000 and bombing even in Italy, where Eastwood is loved, where it pulled in just over $1 million. Warners created a VOD service in Korea for three WB films (Blended, Tammy and Jersey Boys) that wouldn’t get a theatrical release. Eastwood and WB would strike gold a few months later with American Sniper.