VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was introduced by Europacorp’s owner Luc Besson at Cannes in 2015 to kickstart pre-sales. Valerian would come with a $180 million price tag and the financing model would be no different than the usual Europacorp product — majority of the budget (around 80%) would come from international distributors. Besson had developed strong relationships with distributors over the years, usually delivering Europacorp movies on time and on budget and Besson himself just mounted the international hit Lucy. According to Besson, around $80 million of Valerian‘s markets were sold in one day.

Along with pre-sales to over 120 territories, Europacorp received a massive investment from China based Fundamental Films. Fundamental contributed $50 million to the budget in return for a percentage of the film’s equity, along with China distribution and a few other markets. Fundamental Films also acquired a 27.9% ownership EuropaCorp for $67 million.

Additional funding for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets came from BNP Paribas, Orange, Universum Film, Gulf Film, River Road Entertainment, Belga Films and TF1 Films.

US distribution was originally going to be handled by Europacorp’s stateside partner Relativity, but the company went bankrupt and the french mini-major landed a new partner from the up and coming distributor STX. $60 million was allotted to STX for P&A expenses, with Europacorp backstopping the loan. With Europacorp covering any stateside losses, STX is reportedly on the line for under $3 million. It has also been reported that all other distributors are footing their own P&A spend on the film.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was dated for July 21, 2017 and would bow against Dunkirk and Girls Trip. While its difficult to speculate if the picture would have performed better in a less crowded market, Valerian was not helped by mixed reviews, while trying to compete for a similar demo-graph with the spectacularly reviewed Dunkirk. Also eating into Valerian‘s potential audience were War for the Planet of the Apes (released the previous weekend) and Spider-Man: Homecoming (released two weeks earlier). Tracking was pointing to an opening near $20 million and it came in soft with $17,007,624 — placing #5 for the weekend led by Dunkirk and Girls Trip. It also came in under both Apes and Spider-Man. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets collapsed 62.6% the following weekend to $6,360,085 ending the slim chance it had at finding its audience. It fell 62.3% in its third session to $2,395,377 and then lost most of its theater count. The domestic run will close with $40 million (will be updated with the actual number after the run ends). After theaters take their percentage of the gross and STX’s distribution fees, Europacorp will be lucky to see back $20 million from the US theatrical run.

In its global rollout, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets pulled in a respectable $33 million from France and posted red ink for almost every other distributor that shelled out high prices during pre-sales. After tanking in most markets, there were hopes that the China release would bail out the dreadful box office numbers. Valerian pulled in $28.6 million, winning its opening frame, but then it sank 78% the following weekend. The current gross in China stands at $58.3 million. The current offshore cume is at $162.4 million. A few remaining markets are left to open. More as the international numbers post…