MORGAN

Morgan

Morgan was financed by FOX for an inexpensive $8 million and the studio invested north of $20 million into P&A expenses. As part of their marketing, FOX hired IBM to have their supercomputer Watson design its own trailer for the movie, which is a fascinating marketing stunt, but did little to bolster audience interest. FOX dated Morgan for release over the slow Labor Day frame, where it would open against The Light Between Oceans and the wide expansion of Hands Of Stone. The pic would also have direct competition with the breakout hit Don’t Breathe in its second weekend. Morgan was tracking soft going into release, with opening estimates near $6 million and unenthusiastic notices from critics did not help. FOX booked the pic into 2,020 theaters, where it was dead on arrival, posting the 7th worst opening in over 2,000 theaters with $2,012,709 and a $996 per screen average. Morgan placed far outside the top 10 at #18 — just above Hands Of Stone’s disastrous $1.2 million weekend cume. The few auds that showed up did not like what they saw and gave the movie a toxic C+ cinemascore and Morgan sank 74.9% the following weekend to $504,908 and promptly lost most of its theater count. Morgan closed its domestic run after five weeks with just $3,915,251. FOX would see returned about $2.1 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which barely puts a dent in their modest P&A expenses.

FOX opened Morgan overseas in 24 markets, where it was also mostly ignored by audiences and pulled in a mere $1.4 million. The offshore total is currently $4.4 million. It currently is scheduled to rollout in additional markets throughout the remainder of the year. More as the offshore release continues, or more likely, gets dumped straight to video…