The Big Wedding
Rate Movie[Total: 7 Average: 1.1]
- Directed By: Justin Zackham
- Written By: Justin Zackham
- Release Date: April 26, 2013
- Domestic Distributor: Lionsgate
- Cast: Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $35 million | Financed by: Millennium Films; Lionsgate |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $21,819,348 | Overseas Gross: $26,606,623 |
The Big Wedding was a remake of the 2006 French film Mon frère se marie and the project landed at the quality control challenged Millennium Films. Millennium’s usual output was action and genre B-movie schlock, but the company co-financed this rom-com and kicked off pre-sales at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Domestic and UK distribution rights were scooped up by Lionsgate and the mini-major contributed just under $10 million toward the production.
The budget for The Big Wedding was $35 million.
Filming was completed in mid 2011 and The Big Wedding was first dated for October 19, 2012 but then pushed back to April 26, 2013 — where it opened as counter-programming to the male skewing Pain And Gain. Tracking was pointing to a modest $10 million opening and Lionsgate offered buy-one-get-one-free tickets to help drum up interest.
The Big Wedding received awful reviews, which did not help entice older auds to pay for a ticket and it pulled in a poor $7,591,663 — placing #4 for the weekend led by Pain And Gain. Audiences gave The Big Wedding a terrible C+ cinemascore and it declined 48.9% in its second frame to $3,881,857 and then saw a modest 35.8% third session drop to $2,490,362. It then fell 51.4% to $1,210,204 in frame four and promptly lost most of its theater count. The domestic run closed with $21,819,348. Lionsgate would see returned about $12 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, leaving at least half of their P&A costs in the red and their contribution to the budget at a loss.
Lionsgate saw a weak $1.9 million from the UK gross. Australian distributor Roadshow saw a modest $4.5 million which posted the strongest overseas numbers and the overseas total was just $26.6 million across numerous distributors.