Avenging Angelo
- Rate Movie[Total: 4 Average: 2]
- Directed By: Martyn Burke
- Written By: Will Aldis, Steve Mackall
- Release Date: May 20, 2003
- Domestic Distributor: Warner Bros (video release)
- Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Madeleine Stowe, Anthony Quinn
Box Office Info:
Budget: N/A | Financed by: Franchise Pictures |
---|---|
Domestic Gross: $0 | Overseas Gross: $824,597 |
Avenging Angelo was financed for an unreported amount by Elie Samaha’s notorious Franchise Pictures — the criminal production and financing shingle that would fraudulently inflate the budgets of their mostly awful slate of films, like Battlefield Earth, so that their financing partners end up shouldering most of the costs and they pocket the rest. Once Franchise’s former investing partner Intertainment sued (and eventually won and wiped out the company), Samaha formed a brief partnership with Tarak Ben Ammar called Dante Entertainment to finance their movies, including Avenging Angelo.
With all of the shady financial shenanigans, it was a mystery if Ammar actually invested any cash into Franchise films. Regardless, when Dante was announced, they claimed all the movie budgets would be between $30 million and $70 million and when filming began in 2001, Stallone was still commanding a high salary — so the unverified $17M budget that has circulated online for this film is most certainly not based in reality.
Avenging Angelo was the third Franchise disaster that Stallone toplined after Get Carter and Driven. Like all of Franchise’s byproducts, Warner Bros handled the domestic release. WB originally planned on a mid 2002 release date and then it was pushed back to a TBD date in early 2003. In late 2002, Stallone’s long delayed and expensive Eye See You was dumped with a fleeting theatrical release, before going to video a few weeks later. With Stallone’s career in the toilet, WB then sent Avenging Angelo straight to video in May 2003 — which marked the first movie of his to go without a domestic theatrical run.
Franchise sold off rights to overseas distributors, who mostly sent Avenging Angelo straight to video and in the few markets it saw a brief a theatrical release, it pulled in a mere $824,597.