Sex Drive
Rate Movie[Total: 4 Average: 3.8]
- Directed By: Sean Anders
- Written By: Sean Anders, John Morris
- Release Date: October 17, 2008
- Domestic Distributor: Summit
- Cast: Josh Zuckerman, Amanda Crew, Clark Duke, James Marsden
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $19 million | Financed by: Summit |
|---|---|
| Domestic Box Office: $8,402,485 | Overseas Box Office: $10,353,451 |
The sales company Summit made the leap to full formed financier and distributor in late 2007 and Sex Drive was apart of their inaugural slate of pictures. Summit purchased the theatrical rights to the novel after a pitch from teen lit fave publisher Alloy Entertainment, which saw its source material have TV success with Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and success with a movie The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants. The jump to raunchy formulaic comedy was a financial failure and Alloy has kept their development geared to television after Sex Drive.
The budget for Sex Drive was $19 million. Summit financed and handled pre-sales to distributors, which would limit their exposure to the modest budget. Sex Drive was dated for October 17, 2008 and bowed against Max Payne, The Secret Life of Bees and W. Despite an expensive marketing spend, Sex Drive was tracking very poorly for a mid single digit weekend.
Reviews were mixed, but it was dead on arrival with $3,607,164 — placing #9 for the weekend led by Max Payne. It declined 49.6% the following weekend to $1,819,785 and then promptly lost most of its theater count. The domestic run closed with only $8,402,485. Summit would see returned about $4.6M after theaters take their percentage of the gross — which would not even cover 1/4 of the P&A spend. After releasing nothing but low grossing titles for its first year, Summit struck gold a month later with Twilight.
Entertainment One distributed in the UK, which posted the strongest of the poor overseas numbers with $2.2 million. The offshore total was $10.3 million across numerous distributors and Sex Drive went straight to video in France.