Equilibrium

  • Equilibrium box office 2002
    Rate Movie
    [Total: 38 Average: 3.4]
  • Directed By: Kurt Wimmer
  • Written By: Kurt Wimmer
  • Release Date: December 6, 2002
  • Domestic Distributor: Miramax (Dimension)
  • Cast: Christian Bale, Emily Watson, Taye Diggs

Box Office Info:
Budget: $20 million Financed by: Miramax (Dimension)
Domestic Box Office: $1,203,794 Overseas Box Office: $4,155,851


The budget for Equilibrium was $20 million and Miramax’s genre division Dimension financed.   Producer Jan De Bont’s Blue Tulip Prods. was able to secure a Dutch tax incentive through Jan De Bont’s Dutch citizenship.  Miramax handled overseas sales to distributors and packaged Equilibrium with Scary Movie 2The Four Feathers and Dracula 2000 for buyers at the 2000 Mifed marketplace — and sold out all markets on each project.

According to director Kurt Wimmer, Dimension was in the black after selling the film off to overseas distributors and scaled back the marketing as not to risk their profit — which is a nice way of saying they had no faith in the movie and dumped it.  The picture was completed in early 2001 and it sat on the shelf until it was eventually dated for November 8, 2002 and then moved to December 6.

The delayed Equilibrium was panned by critics, given blink and you miss it advertising and was dumped into only 301 theaters.  It pulled in $541,512 with a poor $1,799 per screen average.  Equilibrium declined 50.5% the following weekend to $268,016 and was pulled out of release after only three weeks with just $1,203,794.

Overseas distributors didn’t do much with the movie, with most sending it straight to video.  The majority of the small $4,155,851 overseas gross came from the UK which took in $1,734,463.  The movie did find an audience on home video and cable.  Kurt Wimmer’s next directing assignment was the disaster Ultraviolet (2006), which ended his days behind the camera.

4 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. I’m very surprised it did very little , this is one of those masterpieces that just went unnoticed until it was on scifi channel went I watched it then I bought the DVD it was not wildly marketed at the time.

  2. I’ve been working my way through these lists, so far this is only the second film I’ve come across that shocked me. I thought this was a terrific film. 1984 told in the visual language of John Woo. Well worth a watch.

    • I knew it didn’t make much, and the Matrix comparisons at the time didn’t help. But you’re right it is a great little film.

Leave a Reply to Marcus Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *