Self/Less
| Budget: $26 million | Financed by: Endgame Entertainment; FilmDistrict |
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| Domestic Gross: $12,279,691 | Domestic Distributor: Focus (Gramercy Pictures) |
| Overseas Gross: $18,243,535 |
Directed by: Tarsem Singh
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Starring:
Ryan Reynolds
Ben Kingsley
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Produced by: Peter Schlessel
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Self/less was financed by Endgame Entertainment and FilmDistrict for $26 million, who quickly put the film into development after the two companies saw success with another high concept sci-fi film Looper. FilmNation pre-sold the film at Cannes in 2013 and Self/less was the first film to completely sell out at the festival due to universal appeal and the strong pre-sales limited the two financiers exposure to the budget. FilmDistrict was set to distribute the film in the US, but the company shut down and was absorbed into Universal’s Focus Features. FilmDistrict had Self/less scheduled for a September 26, 2014 release, but Focus had the stop-motion animated Boxtrolls slated for that date and pushed Self/less to February 2015 and then pushed it to April 2015 and then late July, before positioning it on a less crowded weekend July 10. Focus Features had been rebranded in 2014 as more commercially friendly and revived the dormant Gramercy Pictures label (last seen in 2002) for their upcoming slate of genre films — which began with Insidious Chapter 3 and Self/less was the second feature to sport the new label.
Self/less was tracking for a soft $6 million to $8 million opening in 2,353 theaters, and bowed as counter-programming to Minions (Focus’ parent company Universal distributed the toon) and the cheap horror pic The Gallows also opened. It came in below its low expectations with a terrible $5,403,460 — placing #8 for the weekend led by Minions and Jurassic World in frame five. The film declined a steep 58% the following weekend to $2,268,476 and promptly lost most of its theater count. Self/Less ended its domestic run with just $12,279,69. Focus would see returned about $6.7 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, far below their P&A spend.
The film was a dud overseas for all of the distributors who overpaid for the movie during pre-sales and $2.9 million from France was the highest gross. Self/Less pulled in less than a million in most markets and the overseas cume was $18,243,535 across many distributors.