Imagine That
Rate Movie[Total: 13 Average: 2.1]
- Directed By: Karey Kirkpatrick
- Written By: Ed Solomon, Chris Matheson
- Release Date: June 12, 2009
- Domestic Distributor: Paramount
- Cast: Eddie Murphy, Thomas Haden Church, Yara Shahidi
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $55 million | Financed by: Paramount |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $16,123,323 | Overseas Gross: $6,861,871 |
Imagine That was the second of three back to back to back ambition-free projects that Eddie Murphy collected a $20 million paycheck for. First was the box office disaster Meet Dave (2008), then Imagine That and then production quickly began on A Thousand Words, which the studio delayed for 4 years. Paramount financed the film for $55 million. Paramount Film Group President John Lesher and production President Brad Weston were fired about one week after Imagine That flopped, because most of Paramount’s few in-house productions over the past two years were box office losers — including The Love Guru and Dance Flick.
Imagine That was originally dated for September 26, 2008 but the studio pushed it back to June 12, 2009. Paramount gave no explanation for the delay, but the move was likely to keep it away from Meet Dave, which opened in July 2008. Imagine That bowed against The Taking of Pelham 123 and received mixed reviews. The family film would also be competing with big budget family fare still going strong in the market — Up, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and the flop Land Of The Lost.
It was booked into 3,008 theaters and tracking was pointing to a sub $10 million opening. Imagine That was dead on arrival with $5,503,519 — placing #6 for the weekend led by the holdover The Hangover. At the time of release, that was the 4th worst opening on record for a movie playing in over 3,000 locations. The pic saw a 40.2% second frame decline to $3,290,227 and then collapsed 71.4% to $942,273 and promptly lost most of its theater count. The domestic run closed with just $16,123,323.
The reported offshore cume was a mere $6.8 million. The worldwide gross was $22.9M and Paramount would see returned about $12.5M after theaters take their percentage of the gross — which leaves most of the P&A expenses in the red and the budget at a loss.