HANGING UP

Hanging Up

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  [Total: 3 Average: 1.7]
  Genre(s): Comedy

• • Directed By: Diane Keaton
  • Written By: Delia Ephron, Nora Ephron
  • Release Date: February 18, 2000
  • Domestic Distributor: Sony
  • Cast: Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, Walter Matthau
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Box Office Info:

Budget: $40 million	Financed by: Sony
Domestic Box Office: $36,050,230	Overseas Box Office: $15,829,814

“When you have a failure like ‘Hanging Up,’ people aren’t going, ‘Gee, can you direct my movie?’ So I haven’t had many other opportunities to direct again. But I’d like to.”
–Diane Keaton

Hanging Up was scripted by Nora Ephron and her sister Delia Ephron and Nora was originally going to to direct the picture, but she opted to direct the Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks movie You’ve Got Mail.  Diane Keaton signed on as director, which was her second big screen job behind the camera after Unstrung Heroes (1995) and its failure ended her brief directing career.  Meg Ryan signed onto the movie in 1998 and the picture quickly moved forward at Sony, which financed.  The budget for Hanging Up was $40 million.

Diane Keaton was co-starring in the trainwreck Town & Country which began filming in 1998 and went so far over schedule, that she had to temporarily exit that mess of a production to helm Hanging Up.  Sony first scheduled the movie as a 1999 Christmas release, but pushed it back to February 18, 2000.  It bowed against The Whole Nine Yards, Pitch Black and Boiler Room and received awful reviews.  Hanging Up pulled in a soft $13,567,978 — placing #2 for the weekend led by The Whole Nine Yards.  Audiences hated the movie and gave it a toxic C cinemascore and it declined 45.2% to $7,437,898 the following weekend.  The third session fell 50.2% to $3,705,778 and the domestic run closed with $36,050,230.

Hanging Up was a bust for Sony overseas and cumed just $15,829,814.  The worldwide total was $51.8 million and Sony would see returned about $28.4 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross — which would not cover global P&A expenses or any of the budget.

Meg Ryan also toplined the box office bomb Proof of Life at the end of the year.  Hanging Up also marked the final film appearance of Walter Matthau.