THE GREAT RAID

The Great Raid

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  [Total: 3 Average: 3.3]
  Genre(s): Action | War

• Directed By: John Dahl
• Written By: Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro
• Release Date: August 12, 2005
• Domestic Distributor: Miramax
• Cast: Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Sam Worthington
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Box Office Info:

Budget: $49 million	Financed by: Miramax; Village Roadshow
Domestic Box Office: $10,167,373	Overseas Box Office: $601,938

The Great Raid was financed by Miramax and Village Roadshow.  Director John Dahl has said that the budget came in at $49 million.  The WWII epic completed filming in November 2002 and was penciled in for a 2003 release, but nothing materialized.

In 2004, the future of the Weinsteins at Disney owned Miramax was in flux and while the two sides worked out a resolution, their pipeline of films backed up and well over a dozen movies were delayed.  The already delayed The Great Raid, was delayed again with no release in the foreseeable future.  It was announced in March 2005 that the Weinsteins would be leaving Miramax in September and most of the movies that were rotting in their vault were hastily thrown into release.

The Great Raid was dated for August 12, 2005 and was supported by a $20 million P&A spend.  It bowed against Four Brothers, The Skeleton Key and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.  Reviews were mixed leaning negative.

The long delayed film was booked into only 819 theaters and pulled in $3,376,009 — placing #10 for the weekend led by Four Brothers.  Auds gave The Great Raid a solid A cinemascore and the strong audience response had Miramax planning a theatrical expansion over the next few weeks.  It expanded into 920 locations the following weekend with diminishing returns at $1,820,664 and never expanded further.  The expensive film closed with just $10,167,373.  Miramax would see returned about $5.5 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross.

The Great Raid was barely released theatrically overseas, where it pulled in an anemic $601,938 and went straight to video in almost every market.  After ancillary sales, The Great Raid lost about $30 million.