MUPPETS MOST WANTED

Disney plunked down $54 million for this sequel to the moderate success of its predecessor which made $165,184,237 worldwide and Muppets Most Wanted pulled in less than half of the previous installment with a poor $80,383,290 worldwide.  US marketing costs were offset by Disney pairing the muppets with Toyota who took a large portion of the costs for TV ads, especially during prime expensive Superbowl spots.  The Muppets were also integrated across almost every media platform available, saturating their exposure — from every late night show, daytime show, reality cooking shows, dozens of morning news programs, QVC, Maxim and tons more.  Kermit the Frog even rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange four days before the movie opened.

Muppets Most Wanted was tracking for an opening north of $25 million and it bowed against Divergent and God’s Not Dead.  It would be competing for auds with family fare Mr. Peabody & Sherman (in its third frame) and The Lego Movie (still going strong in week seven).  The sequel came in way below expectations with $17,005,126 — placing #2 for the weekend led by Divergent.  Even after after modest weekly declines, Muppets Most Wanted closed with a disappointing $51,183,113.  Disney would see returned about $28 million after theater’s take their percentage of the gross, which would almost cover just the P&A costs.

The Muppet sequel only coughed up $29.2 million from an overseas rollout, with $12.6 million coming from the UK as the highest gross.  These numbers were poor enough to derail what could have been more theatrical Muppet features.  Disney launched a Muppet TV series in 2015 and canceled it after one season.