THE WALK

Sony financed the big screen treatment of Philippe Petit’s book about his stunt To Reach The Clouds for $35 million and after a healthy marketing spend and critical support, The Walk was lost at a crowded box office.  Sony tried to drum up audience interest by opening The Walk exclusively in IMAX as an event and it was tracking for a $3 million weekend, but pulled in an underwhelming $1,560,299 in 448 theaters.  The IMAX push did little to bolster audience interest when The Walk expanded to 2,509 theaters the following weekend and grossed a mere $3,719,177 which at the time of release was the 7th worst opening for a film playing over 2,500 theaters — placing #7 for the weekend, which was led by The Martian in its second weekend in release.  Despite decent reviews and a positive audience response, some movies you can’t even give away and attendance declined 67.6% in its third frame (second wide frame) to $1,203,857 and promptly lost most of its theater count.  Going into its fourth weekend, the pic played in only 261 theaters and grossed $212,340 and The Walk closed its North American run at the box office with only $10,137,502.  The Walk fared a bit better overseas for Sony, with a $51 million gross — with China posting the biggest gross from any territory at $13.7 million.  Recorded domestic home video sales were a paltry $2 million.