The Hunting Party
| Budget: $25 million (estimated) | Financed by: QED; Intermedia; Cherry Road Films |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $969,869 | Domestic Distributor: The Weinstein Company/MGM |
| Overseas Gross: $6,674,540 | Directed by: Richard Shepard |
Starring: Richard Gere Terrence Howard |
Produced by: Mark Johnson |
The Hunting Party was co-financed for an estimated $25 million by QED, German based Intermedia and Cherry Road Films. The Hunting Party was also to be a co-production with Warner Independent which would distribute the pic in the US, but Warner Bros. Pictures prexy of production Jeff Robinov denied WB Independent from going ahead with the project and replaced Mark Gill who was running WB Independent. The Weinstein Company quickly took US rights after WBI dropped the project. QED pre-sold all major territories at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, which would limit their exposure to the budget. The Weinstein Company co-distributed The Hunting Ground with MGM and opened the film in 4 theaters to a disappointing $39,609 with a not very promising $9,902 per screen average. TWC and MGM planned on expanding the pic the following week to 600 theaters, but changed their release strategy after the soft start. The Hunting party expanded to 40 locations in its second weekend to a poor $98,851 with a $2,471 per screen average and had a further third weekend expansion to 329 theaters to $365,661 with a $1,111 per screen average that killed off any chance for a wider release. The Hunting Party ended its US run with only $969,869. The film was mostly dumped overseas and cumed a weak $6.6 million across numerous distributors and went straight to video in France. Recorded domestic home video sales were $3.3 million.