EDGE OF DARKNESS

Edge Of Darkness

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  Genre(s): Drama | Thriller

• Directed By: Martin Campbell
• Written By: William Monahan, Andrew Bovell
• Release Date: January 29, 2010
• Domestic Distributor: Warner Bros
• Cast: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Frank Grillo
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Box Office Info:

Budget: $60 million	Financed by: GK Films
Domestic Gross: $43,313,890	Overseas Gross: $37,810,239

Director Martin Campbell originally helmed Edge Of Darkness as an acclaimed 1985 BBC mini-series and around the year 2000, the project was being retooled as a US feature with Campbell attached as director.  Eventually Graham King’s GK Films fully financed Edge Of Darkness for $60 million and Warner Bros acquired US rights for $27 million.  The film did sell well to distributors worldwide, so Graham King had a limited risk after selling off the international rights.  The initial production budget was a bit lower before Robert De Niro was fired for being unprepared for his role, or left because of ‘creative differences’ according to his handlers and kept his salary.

This Mel Gibson vehicle was his first turn in front of the camera in eight years and marked his first fleeting comeback after a drunken racist incident about Jews four years earlier and 5 months after the movie opened he was back in exile when he had another drunken racist incident about blacks/threatening his girlfriend.

WB dated Edge Of Darkness for January 28 and had modest expectations for the movie, since Gibson’s appeal to the public at large was questionable at best.  Reviews were mixed and tracking was pointing to a mid teens opening.  It bowed against When In Rome and opened on the high end of estimates with $17,214,384 — placing #2 for the weekend behind Avatar in its seventh frame.  Edge Of Darkness sank 60.2% in its second session to $6,855,371 and burned out with $43,313,890.  After theaters take their percentage of the gross, Warner Bros would see back around $24 million, which would not cover the entire P&A spend.

Overseas, Edge of Darkness pulled in mediocre to poor numbers across numerous distributors, with a weak total of $37.8 million.  After Gibson’s second rant went public, his follow up vehicle The Beaver, was buried by distributors.