In The Heart Of The Sea
| Budget: $100 million (estimated) | Financed by: Warner Bros; Village Roadshow |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $25,020,758 | Domestic Distributor: Warner Bros |
| Overseas Gross: $68,800,000 | Directed by: Ron Howard |
Starring: Chris Hemsworth Cillian Murphy | Produced by: Brian Grazer |
Warner Bros and Village Roadshow co-financed In The Heart Of The Sea with a budget reported to be between $110 - $115 million, though Warner Bros claims the costs were closer to $100 million. The original $85 million budget swelled after costly challenges of filming on water and adding 3D. The Ron Howard directed pic was originally scheduled for a US release on March 13, 2015 but Warner Bros pushed the March release date back nine months to December for an awards qualifying run and placed the Liam Neeson actioner Run All Night into its vacancy. In The Heart Of The Sea received mixed to poor reviews, which killed off any possible awards hype and while it was the only wide release opening on Dec 11, it saw competition from the glut of awards fare targeting older audiences. The marketplace was also slowing down before the arrival of Star Wars: The Force Awakens the following weekend.
Warner Bros gave In The Heart Of The Sea a pricey marketing blitz, with over $30 million just in domestic TV ads, plus millions more in print, online, radio, virtual print fees, where the P&A costs were north of $40 million. Warner Bros opened the film in 3,103 theaters and it came in below its modest expectations with $11,053,366 — placing #2 for the slow weekend led by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 in its fourth frame. Since the picture skewed to an older audience, WB expected the movie to play well over the upcoming weeks, but it sank a huge 68.7% in its second frame to $3,465,000 when Star Wars sucked the air out of the marketplace. In The Heart Of The Sea was yanked out of 2,418 theaters going into its third weekend (which at the time of release was the third biggest theater drop on record) and grossed a mere $965,800 in 685 theaters. The pic closed its domestic run with $25,020,758. WB would see back about $13.7 million after theaters take their cut of the ticket price.
Warner Bros distributed In The Heart Of The Sea in most overseas markets and just as with the domestic run, it was hurt by strong competition. Co-financier Roadshow distributed the pic in their home country Australia to a disappointing $1.7 million. In The Heart Of The Sea‘s overseas cume stalled at $68.8 million and the worldwide total at $93.8 million, leaving this as one of WB’s biggest flops of 2015 after Pan and Jupiter Ascending.