Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!
| Budget: $24 million | Financed by: DreamWorks |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $17,071,962 | Domestic Distributor: DreamWorks |
| Overseas Gross: $4,206,494 | Directed by: Robert Luketic |
Starring: Kate Bosworth Topher Grace |
Produced by: Lucy Fisher |
In March 2002, Victor Levin sold the Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! spec script to DreamWorks for a huge $800,000 against $1.5 million. DreamWorks financed Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! for $24 million and originally scheduled this formulaic rom-com for March 19, 2004 but eventually pushed it forward to January 23. DreamWorks held national sneak previews the weekend before its release on Friday and Sunday at 700 locations to help spread word of mouth. Despite being a relatively low risk title, DreamWorks was coming off an awful 2003 that hemorrhaged untold millions off the studio’s bottom line, with Old School being their only hit and Biker Boyz, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Head of State and Anything Else doing terrible business — and Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! continued their string of flops.
Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! bowed against The Butterfly Effect and received mixed notices from critics. It grossed a disappointing $7,320,066 — placing #3 for the weekend led by The Butterfly Effect. Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! declined 42.5% the following weekend to $4,211,395 and stumbled 61.1% in its third session to $1,638,287 and then promptly lost most of its theater count. The domestic run closed with $17,071,962. DreamWorks would see back about $9.3 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, leaving part of the P&A costs in the red and the budget at a loss.
Universal distributed the film overseas, which pulled in a mere $4,206,494 with $1.4 million from Australia and $971,738 from the UK being the bulk of its total. DreamWorks followed this dud with Eurotrip and the troubled and long delayed Envy.