TRESPASS

Trespass was financed by Nu Image/Millennium for $35 million and this would be the second 2011 money loser for the company staring Nic Cage after the expensive Drive Angry — and every film they financed staring Cage had been a box office dud — Wicker Man, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and in 2012 Stolen.  Two weeks before filming, Cage had his role switched from the husband to the lead kidnapper and then quit the project, which had Millennium scrambling to find a replacement so the production wouldn’t collapse.  A few days later Cage returned to the film and the husband character.  Millennium distributed Trespass in the US and they don’t have much muscle when it comes to theatrical releases and dumped the film in 10 theaters with day and date VOD.  Trespass pulled in all of $24,094 at the US box office and it lasted one week in release.  Pre-sales were based on the still bankable global names of Cage and Nicole Kidman and the film managed only $9.5 million across every territory and multiple distributors.  Ascot Elite acquired rights in Germany during the pre-sales, only to send it straight to video and it was dumped straight to video in Australia and Italy.  Nic Cage publicly expressed his displeasure that Trespass opened on VOD the same day as the limited theatrical release, but with almost every subsequent Cage vehicle being relegated to VOD, this is something I’m sure he has acclimated to.