The Shipping News
| Budget: $38 million | Financed by: Miramax |
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| Domestic Gross: $11,434,216 | Domestic Distributor: Miramax |
| Overseas Gross: $13,256,225 |
Directed by: Lasse Hallström
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Starring:
Kevin Spacey
Julianne Moore
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Produced by: Irwin Winkler
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The Shipping News was going to be a co-production of Columbia and Miramax, but Columbia decided to pull out of the project and in order to keep it from going into turnaround, Miramax took on financing duties and brokered a deal with Columbia that would return their early production investment — which was just under $5 million. With a $38 million budget, production stretched later than expected into July and post production had to be accelerated so Miramax could position The Shipping News as an end of the year Oscar contender with an all-category push. After critic screenings and an LA premiere, Harvey Weinstein had Lasse Hallström cut about five minutes off the picture and it was completed just prior to its platform release beginning on Christmas.
The Shipping News received weak reviews and Miramax could not capitalize off of any nominations and it opened in 186 theaters over a very crowded holiday frame with $1,205,174 and a $6,479 per screen average. Miramax also saw disappointing results that weekend with their wide release Kate and Leopold. The planned wide release was nixed and The Shipping News expanded to only 434 theaters during its domestic run and closed with $11,434,216. Miramax would see back about $6.2 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which would not even cover their modest P&A costs.
Miramax’s parent company Disney released the film in a few overseas territories through their Buena Vista International label and the film tanked in every market. Disney saw $365,955 from France, $825,583 from Italy and Concord saw the film’s strongest showings in Germany with $2.2 million. The overseas cume was $13,256,225 across a few distributors.