The Guilt Trip
Rate Movie[Total: 7 Average: 2.4]
- Directed By: Anne Fletcher
- Written By: Dan Fogelman
- Release Date: December 19, 2012
- Domestic Distributor: Paramount
- Cast: Barbra Streisand, Seth Rogen, Adam Scott
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $40 million | Financed by: Skydance; Paramount |
|---|---|
| Domestic Box Office: $37,134,215 | Overseas Box Office: $4,729,511 |
Shortly after Anne Fletcher helmed the box office smash The Proposal (2009), Paramount attached her to The Guilt Trip. Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand signed onto this stinker in January 2011 and the project was fast-tracked to production.
The budget for The Guilt Trip was $40 million and it was co-financed by Paramount and David Ellison’s Skydance.
Paramount first dated the picture for November 2 and then shifted it to Christmas day and then moved it forward to six days to December 19. Paramount launched an expensive marketing campaign through the airline Virgin America and the car rental company Budget, as well as heavy promotion through the Home Shopping Network. Seth Rogan’s character was an inventor, so Paramount launched a platform where people can pitch their ideas on the network for $25. Giving amateur inventors a moment to shill their idea would somehow sell tickets to The Guilt Trip? The studio also tried to spread word of mouth by having 20 screenings at AMC theaters in cities across the country with a Q&A streamed live after the showing on December 2.
Paramount opened four movies on the same frame — The Guilt Trip, Jack Reacher, Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away and the limited release of Not Fade Away. This Is 40 and the re-release of Monsters, Inc. in 3D also bowed that weekend. The Guilt Trip landed mixed reviews and tanked with $5,290,629 — placing #6 for the weekend led by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The film gained 23.8% over its second weekend, which was the Christmas frame, to $6,547,462 and saw a modest 32.3% third weekend (New Year’s) decline to $4,434,948. The Guilt Trip sank 57.1% in its fourth weekend to $1,901,160 and closed with $37,134,215.
The Guilt Trip was theatrically released in just a couple of offshore markets and numbers were an anemic $4.7 million. The film went straight to video in major markets like France and Italy. The worldwide cume was $41.8M and Paramount would see returned about 26.4M after theaters take their percentage of the gross — far below P&A expenses and the budget would be all red. Hopefully some inventors saw more success than Skydance and Paramount did with The Guilt Trip.