BLOOD AND WINE

Blood and Wine

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  [Total: 17 Average: 3.4]
  Genre(s): Drama | Crime

• Directed By: Bob Rafelson
• Written By: Nick Villiers, Alison Cross
• Release Date: February 21, 1997
• Domestic Distributor: Fox Searchlight
• Cast: Jack Nicholson, Stephen Dorff, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Caine
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Box Office Info:

Budget: $22 million	Financed by: Fox Searchlight; Majestic Films
Domestic Box Office: $1,094,668	Overseas Box Office: $2,462,183

Blood and Wine began development at British producer Jeremy Thomas’ Recorded Pictures Co., who announced the project at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival as a $15M picture.  The budget for Blood and Wine increased to $22 million when Jeremy Thomas sold the project to Fox Searchlight and also when Jack Nicholson committed to the role.    Fox Searchlight financed with Majestic Films and Searchlight took on domestic distribution duties and FOX retained select international rights.  Majestic retained the rights to all remaining markets and began sales to distributors at Cannes in 1995.

Blood and Wine was the third entry in an unofficial trilogy of movies about dysfunctional families from veteran director Bob Rafelson, after Five Easy Pieces (1970) and The King of Marvin Gardens (1972).  This also marked the seventh collaboration between Rafelson and Jack Nicholson, who had last worked together on the trainwreck Man Trouble (1992), which was disowned by both of them.  Blood and Wine was a return to form for the director, but reviews were mixed to lukewarm and Fox Searchlight did not do much in the way giving this nasty, jet black noir a commercial push.

Blood And Wine was pushed out of a late 1996 release and dumped into 166 theaters on February 21, 1997.  It pulled in $420,993 with a poor $2,536 per screen average, which would nix a theater expansion.  Audiences gave the movie a toxic C cinemascore and Blood and Wine plummeted 62% to $161,353 the following weekend and quickly fizzled out of theaters with just $1,094,668.

Blood and Wine was given a small theatrical rollout in most offshore markets, where the movie cumed all of $2.4M across numerous distributors.

Pointless Trivia: Michael Caine decided to quit acting after his miserable experience on Bullet to Beijing and Jack Nicholson convinced him to take his role in Blood and Wine and continue to keep working.