Transylmania

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  • Directed By: David Hillenbrand, Scott Hillenbrand
  • Written By: Patrick Casey, Josh Miller
  • Release Date: December 4, 2009
  • Domestic Distributor: Third Eye Capital Corporation; Strative Capital (through Full Circle Releasing)
  • Cast: James DeBello, Musetta Vander, Tony Denman

Box Office Info:
Budget: $5 million Financed by: David Hillenbrand and Scott Hillenbrand
Domestic Box Office: $397,461 Overseas Box Office: $10,588


We normally do not do write-ups on low budget fare like this, but we’ll make a special exception for the godawful spoof Transylmania.  Directors David Hillenbrand and Scott Hillenbrand reportedly financed Transylmania for $5 million and completed this junk in early 2007.  They searched for theatrical distribution, but obviously did not find a distributor willing to set a pile of money on fire.  The duo somehow managed to convince the flywheels at Third Eye Capital Corporation and Strative Capital to pay for a $22 million P&A spend.  Full Circle Releasing was tapped as a rent-a-distributor to handle the release logistics.

Transylmania was dated for December 4 and bowed against Brothers, Armored and Everybody’s Fine.  It was not screened for critics and the reviews that eventually posted were some of the worst.  Full Circle was only able to secure Transylmania into 1,007 theaters, where it landed the worst opening weekend on record for a film playing in over 1,000 theaters with $263,941 and a per screen average of $262 — placing #21 for the frame.  It was yanked out of all but 118 theaters going into its second session and dropped 93.9% to $16,018 and was pulled from release after its second week with just $397,461 at the US box office.

After theaters take their percentage of the gross, the two companies that put up the $22 million ad spend lost all, but $100,000 and took the two directors to court on charges of fraud and misleading the companies to invest in this disaster.  An accounting firm hired to audit this mess, uncovered fraud indeed when the two director brothers took part of the ad spend to pay off traffic tickets, their credit card bills and kept some of that P&A spend for themselves and friends and family.  Third Eye Capital Corporation and Strative Capital also claimed to never have seen the film, (which was finished) before handing over the $22 million to market it, which if that is indeed true, this website could use some of your cash — but we won’t show or explain how the funds will be used.

Transylmania went straight to video in a few overseas markets where it found a release and saw a tiny theatrical release in Romania to $10,588.

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