Eurotrip
- Rate Movie[Total: 48 Average: 3.3]
- Directed By: Jeff Schaffer, Alec Berg, David Mandel
- Written By: Jeff Schaffer, Alec Berg, David Mandel
- Release Date: February 20, 2004
- Domestic Distributor: DreamWorks
- Cast: Michelle Trachtenberg, Scott Mechlowicz, Jacob Pitts
Box Office Info:
Budget: $25 million | Financed by: DreamWorks |
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Domestic Box Office: $17,771,387 | Overseas Box Office: $3,025,460 |
Screenwriters and first time directors Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer sold their script, originally titled The Ugly Americans (better title) to the Ivan Reitman run Montecito Pictures for $3 million, which was based at DreamWorks. DreamWorks financed Eurotrip for $25 million and dated the picture for February 20, 2004. DreamWorks heavily marketed Eurotrip, including dishing out $2.3 million per 30 second ad spots during the Super Bowl. The marketing material pushed that Eurotrip was from the makers of Old School and Road Trip, which incensed director Todd Phillips. Even the title of Eurotrip was designed to piggyback off the success of Road Trip.
Phillips was developing Old School 2 for DreamWorks and said, “I felt like they really marketed it off of my two movies even though I had nothing to do with it, and it just looked like the worst movie ever, but somehow I got dragged into it, and it made me crazy. I said, ‘If you do this, I won’t do ‘Old School 2.’ And they said: ‘Well, this is business. We’ve got to worry about this movie right now.’ ” So because of Eurotrip, there was no Old School 2.
Eurotrip bowed against Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Welcome to Mooseport and the delayed Against The Ropes. The movie was tracking well, but corpsed with $6,711,384 — placing #5 for the weekend led by the holdover 50 First Dates. Eurotrip declined a modest 39.6% the following weekend to $4,051,428 but sank 60% in its third frame to $1,620,668. The domestic run closed with a poor $17,771,387. DreamWorks would see back about $9.7 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which would leave much of the P&A costs in the red and the budget untouched.
UIP (joint distribution between Universal and Paramount) released the movie overseas in a small rollout, where it grossed only $3,025,460 and went straight to video in France.
How did this cost $25 million? The only recognizable name in it is Michelle Trachtenberg. On location shooting in Europe maybe?