The Internship
Rate Movie[Total: 8 Average: 2.5]
- Directed By: Shawn Levy
- Written By: Vince Vaughn, Jared Stern
- Release Date: June 7, 2013
- Domestic Distributor: FOX
- Cast: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Rose Byrne
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $58 million | Financed by: FOX; New Regency; TSG Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $44,672,764 | Overseas Gross: $48,820,080 |
The budget for The Internship was $58 million and it was co-financed by FOX, New Regency and TSG Entertainment.
In 2013 FOX set up a $400 million slate financing deal with TSG Entertainment to replace Dune Capital, which had the same basic co-financing deal at FOX — TSG Entertainment would co-finance FOX films between a quarter of the costs and half of the costs, depending on the project. The pairing of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson for the first time since Wedding Crashers and FOX’s hit director Shawn Levy (Date Night, Night At The Museum movies) was as solid as a packaged commercial studio comedy could be.
Having just starred in The Watch (2012) which was practically a feature length commercial for Costco, Vince Vaughn was the one who approached Google to pitch this high concept comedy. The movie would be designed as a flattering showcase for the tech giant, which in return would give free use for its logos, have control over how its products and culture were represented and they would allow two days of filming on their campus site. This was a win-win for Google’s image, which over the past few years had eroded from tax avoidance schemes, antitrust accusations, page-rank manipulation, political lobbying, violations of users privacy and so on.
The Internship landed some of the highest test screening scores for a comedy at FOX, but it was tracking soft in the weeks up to its release. It was dated for June 7 and bowed against The Purge. FOX held nationwide sneak previews the weekend before its release at 300 locations to about 75% capacity, to help spread word of mouth. The film received mixed to poor reviews and was predictably criticized for being a corporate shill of a movie for Google.
The Internship was tracking for an opening near $15 million and came in above expectations with $17,325,307 — placing #4 for the weekend led by The Purge. The Internship plunged 58.7% to $7,148,551 the following weekend, which saw the marketplace taken over by Man Of Steel and it lost auds to the comedy This Is The End. The Internship continued to post huge weekly declines and closed its domestic run with a disappointing $44,672,764.
The movie played moderately well for a comedy overseas and eclipsed the domestic run with a $48.8 million cume. The worldwide total came to $93.4M and FOX would see returned about $51.3M after theaters take their percentage of the gross — leaving well over $20M in global P&A expenses in the red and the budget untouched by the theatrical receipts.
Vince Vaughn saw his next studio vehicle Delivery Man fizzle a few months later. About two months before the release of The Internship, Vaughn inked a deal with New Regency to star in Unfinished Business (2015) and that flop would become his last studio vehicle.