Million Dollar Arm
| Budget: $25 million | Financed by: Disney |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $36,457,627 | Domestic Distributor: Disney |
| Overseas Gross: $2,769,953 | Directed by: Craig Gillespie |
Starring: Jon Hamm Bill Paxton | Produced by: Joe Roth |
With the new Disney model of releasing fewer films, but with colossal budgets looking for colossal returns, Disney decided to fund this $25 million production they call ‘brand deposits.’ Films smaller in scale that retain a certain Disney quality that makes audiences appreciate the Disney label. Disney studio Chairman Alan Horn said the test screenings for Million Dollar Arm scored higher than any film he tested at both Disney and his 12 year tenure at Warner Bros. To spread positive word of mouth, the mouse house gave the movie a nation wide sneak preview the Saturday before its release, but attendance was light. Million Dollar Arm opened as counter-programming to Godzilla and pulled in a soft $10,515,659 — placing #4 for the weekend. It fell a modest 33.7% to $6,968,980 in its second weekend and continued with respectable weekly declines, but closed its domestic run with a disappointing $36,457,627.
The domestic gross could not lift the lack of appeal of a baseball theme in the international market into profit. It pulled in only $2.7 million in overseas grosses for Disney and even with part of the movie filmed in India and geared toward the Indian market, it managed only $492,240 in the territory. The worldwide total was $39.2 million, leaving Disney with about $21.5 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross — which falls far short of Disney’s P&A spend and leaves the budget in the red.