SPARTAN

David Mamet’s Spartan was financed for an estimated $19 million – $23 million by the ever corrupt Franchise Pictures, which would quickly go bust after a lawsuit and numerous judgments against them about inflating budgets so their financial partners would end up shouldering most of the production costs.  Spartan also received capital from Signature Pictures and German based ApolloMedia.  Warner Bros distributed in the US through their output deal with Franchise Pictures.  Warner Bros opened the film only moderately wide in the US in 832 theaters against Secret Window and Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London.  Spartan took in $2,011,435 with a $2,417 per screen average — placing #10 for the weekend led by The Passion Of The Christ in frame three.  It collapsed 58.9% in its second weekend to $827,275 and promptly lost most of its theater count.  Spartan was pulled from release after five weeks with $4,434,432 at the box office.  Warner Bros would see back about $2.4 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which barely puts a dent in their modest P&A spend.  Warner Bros dumped Spartan in the UK in 25 theaters to a total of $139,073 and the overseas cume was a mere $3,678,280 across numerous distributors.  The film was sent straight to video in France, Germany and many smaller markets.