Aloha
- Rate Movie[Total: 12 Average: 2]
- Directed By: Cameron Crowe
- Written By: Cameron Crowe
- Release Date: May 29, 2015
- Domestic Distributor: Sony
- Cast: Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray
Box Office Info:
Budget: $37 million | Financed by: Sony; New Regency; RatPac; LStar Capital |
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Domestic Gross: $21,067,116 | Overseas Gross: $5,182,904 |
The budget for Aloha was $37 million and it was financed by Sony which contributed 50%, New Regency 25%, RatPac 25% and LStar Capital (a $200 million equity line at Sony that covers a slate of films) partially contributed to Sony’s end. Aloha was originally scheduled to be released over Christmas 2014 and in the hacked Sony emails, the studio estimated the box office gross would be $90 million. Also in the emails, the studio green-lit a domestic marketing budget for $48,300,000.
Aloha turned out to be a complete narrative mess that needed work and was pushed back to May 29, 2015. Disparaging remarks about how terrible the movie was from Sony executives, also went public from the emails. That followed with a strong backlash against the casting of Emma Stone as a person of Chinese-Hawaiian heritage and buzz around the finished project became toxic.
Despite the star power of Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone, Aloha had little hype and was tracking for a $12 million to $15 million opening weekend. It received poor reviews and bowed against San Andreas. Aloha came in below its modest expectations with $9,670,235 in 2,815 theaters — placing #6 for the weekend. It sank 66.5% to $3,240,312 the following frame and had a 69.3% decline in its third session to $994,396. Aloha closed its domestic run with only $21,067,116. Sony would see returned about $11.5 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, leaving much of the P&A spend in the red and the budget untouched.
Aloha was released in most overseas territories by FOX and the recorded numbers were just $5,182,904. FOX dumped the picture straight to video in the UK and France.
After the box office juggernaut American Sniper, Cooper saw his long delayed Serena barely make a blip on the box office radar just a few months earlier and 5 months after the release of Aloha, the his vehicle Burnt tanked at the box office. Writer/director Cameron Crowe had been on a downward trajectory for over a decade and the last picture of his to be warmly received by critics was the box office flop Almost Famous (2000). Elizabethtown was a critical and commercial failure and We Bought A Zoo was a disappointment that just about broke even.