Pride And Prejudice And Zombies
| Budget: $28 million | Financed by: Cross Creek Pictures |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $10,907,291 | Domestic Distributor: Sony (Screen Gems) |
| Overseas Gross: $5,467,037 | Directed by: Burr Steers |
Starring: Lena Headey | Produced by: Natalie Portman |
Pride And Prejudice And Zombies had numerous attempts to reach production since the genre mash-up novel by Seth Grahame-Smith was released in 2009 — a handful of directors that came and went, multiple financiers that boarded the property and left, including Lionsgate (which acquired UK distribution rights). Cross Creek Pictures finally took over financing duties for the $28 million film and Sierra/Affinity sold international rights to distributors. Cross Creek Pictures moved from its home at Universal over to Sony for a three year agreement, where it hopes to be a major supplier and co-financier of films on the Sony slate after the two parties worked on a domestic distribution agreement for Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. Sony released the pic through their Screen Gems label and gave Pride And Prejudice And Zombies a solid marketing campaign. For additional awareness, the studio even landed a ridiculous partnership with Hot Topic for a PP&Z lingerie collection.
The film opened in the US over the Super Bowl weekend, where it tried to court femme auds and would be competing for a similar crowd with the Nicholas Sparks movie The Choice. Hail, Caesar! also bowed. Pride And Prejudice And Zombies was expected to open in the $12 million range, but was dead on arrival with $5,324,240 — placing #6 for the weekend led by holdover Kung Fu Panda 3. The pic saw a second frame decline of 51.9% to $2,561,107 and promptly lost most of its theater count. It lost 2,455 theaters going into its third frame, which is the third biggest theater drop number on record after Meet Dave and Jonah Hex. Sony stopped reporting the box office numbers after only four weeks with a cume of $10,907,291. Sony would see back about $5.9 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, far below their P&A costs.
Overseas numbers have not been any more kind to the popular novel and the gross stands at just $5.4 million. The UK was the only market to reach $1 million in ticket sales.