Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Rate Movie[Total: 3 Average: 2.7]
- Directed By: Shekhar Kapur
- Written By: William Nicholson, Michael Hirst
- Release Date: October 12, 2007
- Domestic Distributor: Universal
- Cast: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $55 million | Financed by: Working Title; Universal; StudioCanal |
|---|---|
| Domestic Box Office: $16,383,509 | Overseas Box Office: $57,854,054 |
In early 1999, Working Title was acquired by Universal and the major studio gave the UK based company the autonomy to greenlight up to five movies per year with budgets up to $25 million and higher budgets would have to be approved by Universal.
The budget for Elizabeth: The Golden Age was $55 million, making it one of the more expensive productions from Working Title, which financed the project with Universal and received some additional coin from StudioCanal
— which usually invested into Working Title’s movies for rights in France and a portion of the film’s backend.
This belated sequel to the acclaimed 1998 picture was dated for October 12, 2007 and was expected to be a major awards player for Universal, which handled the stateside release. Elizabeth: The Golden Age premiered a month early at the Toronto International Film Festival to drum up award excitement, but instead the film was poorly received and the period drama was left in a commercial dead zone.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age was booked into 2,001 theaters and bowed against Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? and We Own the Night. It tanked with $6,153,075 — placing #6 for the weekend led by Why Did I Get Married? Elizabeth attracted an older audience and was expected to leg out at the box office over the upcoming weeks, but it fell 48.8% in its second weekend to $3,150,180 which ended its chances at breaking out. The sequel closed its US run with a terrible $16,383,509. Universal would see returned about $8.9M after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which would leave much of the P&A costs in the red.
Universal gave the film a strong push in the UK and it pulled in a modest $10,346,837 which was the highest international gross. Elizabeth: The Golden Age saw mediocre numbers overseas, which stalled at $57.8M. After the expensive and troubled production of the 2002 flop The Four Feathers and then Elizabeth: The Golden Age, helmer Shekhar Kapur has not directed another feature.