THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES

Another would be YA franchise that failed to start a theatrical series, after Beautiful Creatures and The Host tanked earlier in the year.  German based Constantin financed the $60 million The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, with former Summit co-founder David Garrett, who left Summit after the company merged with Lionsgate and Garrett started his own financing and sales entity Mister Smith Entertainment.  Mister Smith pre-sold the potential YA franchise starter at Cannes, where it sold out every territory to distributors overpaying for another Twilight type success.  Sony took US rights and primed the film for an IMAX release with a heavy marketing spend.  Sony opened the film in 3,118 theaters over a slow end of summer frame, to a poor $9,336,957 — placing #3 for the weekend led by The Butler and We’re The Millers.  The Mortal Instruments saw a 41.4% second frame decline to $5,475,416 and ended its disappointing run with just $31,165,421.  Sony would see about $17.1 million after theaters take their percentage of the box office, less than their P&A and acquisition spend.  City of Bones opened with poor to mediocre numbers throughout every territory, pulling in $59.4 million across many distributors.  China distributor Bona, which 19.9% of Bona is owned by FOX, put the film out to a disappointing $4,260,000.  Constantin is going ahead with a TV series from the property after they shut down the sequel which was being prepped when this opened to numbers that distributors would certainly pass on.