BLACKHAT

Blackhat

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  [Total: 7 Average: 3.3]
  Genre(s): Thriller

• Directed By: Michael Mann
• Written By: Morgan Davis Foehl
• Release Date: January 16, 2015
• Domestic Distributor: Legendary (through Universal)
• Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Leehom Wang, Viola Davis
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Box Office Info:

Budget: $70 million	Financed by: Legendary
Domestic Gross: $8,005,980	Overseas Gross: $11,659,879

The budget for Blackhat was $70 million after a 30% tax rebate for filming in Malaysia and other tax incentive friendly locations and Legendary Pictures financed.  Legendary also footed the bill for the expensive marketing spend and used Universal’s distribution resources to release the picture.  Universal received a fee for handling Blackhat.

Blackhat was dated for January 16, 2015 and it was reported in mid 2014 that it might land a limited Oscar qualifying run at the end of the year before expanding wide, but that was scrapped.  Legendary supported Blackhat with an expensive domestic marketing campaign, spending $20.4 million on TV ads (as per iSpotTV) going into release and millions more after its opening, plus millions spent on print, online, radio, etc — with a stateside P&A spend north of $35 million.  After the costly ad push and theaters taking their percentage of the gross, Legendary announced that they took a $90 million write down on the $70 million film — making Blackhat one of the biggest money losers ever.

With atrocious marketing material, most of which was overseen by Mann, including a terrible trailer that highlights the hideous cinematography that barely looks broadcast quality — the movie was not tracking well.  Blackhat opened against The Wedding Ringer, Paddington and the wide expansion of American Sniper and received mixed to poor reviews.  It had a disastrous opening at $3,901,815 — placing #10 for the weekend led by American Sniper.  Audiences gave the pic a terrible C- cinemascore and Blackhat sank 57.3% in its second frame to $1,667,975 and was pulled out of all but 236 theaters going into its third weekend.  It was quickly out of release with just $8,005,980.

After the poor domestic total, Legendary pulled the Australian theatrical release and dumped it straight to video.  The offshore release pulled in just $11.6 million and most markets saw numbers well under $1 million.  Legendary had a rough start in 2015 between the $90 million loss on Blackhat and an $85 million loss on Seventh Son.  In January 2016, the Chinese company Wanda acquired Legendary for $3.5 billion and in their financial statements, which were attained by the hollywoodreporter, Legendary lost $555.6 million in 2015.  Blackhat, Seventh Son, Steve Jobs and Crimson Peak contributed to the loss.