Fallen
Rate Movie[Total: 14 Average: 3.4]
- Directed By: Gregory Hoblit
- Written By: Nicholas Kazan
- Release Date: January 16, 1998
- Domestic Distributor: Warner Bros
- Cast: Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Donald Sutherland
Box Office Info:
| Budget: N/A | Financed by: Warner Bros |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $25,232,289 | Overseas Gross: $5,925,842 |
In March 1994, Dawn Steel and Chuck Roven announced a four year first-look deal with Turner Pictures for their new production shingle Atlas Entertainment, which purchased Nicholas Kazan’s Fallen spec script. Steel and Roven fast tracked Fallen into development and Turner greenlit the project in 1995 for a planned April 1, 1996 start date. Arnold Schwarzenegger was courted to take the lead role, but that never materialized and eventually Denzel Washington signed onto the project.
Turner was set to finance Fallen, but his media empire was given the legal go ahead to be acquired by Time Warner just one week after Fallen began filming on October 18, 1996 and all of Turner’s operations were folded into Warner Bros. The budget on Fallen was not reported, but it was touted as an expensive project and in the late 90’s Denzel Washington was usually commanding a $12M salary.
Fallen was dated for January 16, 1998 and bowed against Hard Rain, Half Baked and Star Kid. Reviews were mixed to poor, buzz was weak and the picture was ultimately lost in the marketplace dominated by Titanic and other expanding adult targeting awards fare. It pulled in a soft $9,146,119 — placing #3 for the weekend led by Titanic in its 5th frame. Audiences gave Fallen a poor C+ cinemascore and it declined 46% to $4,947,268 the following session. The domestic run closed with a poor $25,232,289. WB would see returned about $13.6M after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which would not even cover half of the P&A expenses or any of the budget.
Denzel Washington hit a box office rough patch in 1998 — first was Fallen and then He Got Game in May and then the expensive The Siege disappointed in November.
Reported overseas numbers were just $5.9M.