The Last Witch Hunter
Rate Movie[Total: 34 Average: 3.7]
- Directed By: Breck Eisner
- Written By: Cory Goodman, Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless
- Release Date: October 23, 2015
- Domestic Distributor: Lionsgate
- Cast: Vin Diesel, Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $80 million (estimated) | Financed by: Lionsgate |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $27,367,660 | Overseas Gross: $119,569,250 |
The Last Witch Hunter is another failed attempt by Lionsgate to spawn a series after Mortdecai, American Ultra and Child 44 were all groomed to be their next big franchise in 2015. Lionsgate mitigates their risk on expensive projects by pre-selling the film to overseas distributors and their financial model usually leaves them on the line for around $13 million of the production costs — plus the ever growing expense of domestic marketing, which usually runs north of $30 million. The budget for The Last Witch Hunter was $80 million and its box office failure left Lionsgate with a write-down of $7.2 million.
Lionsgate dated the pic for October 23, against a glut of low budget wide openers — Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, Rock The Kasbah, Jem and The Holograms and the wide expansion of Steve Jobs. Reviews were poor. The Last Witch Hunter was tracking for an opening between $15 – $19 million, but came in far below expectations with $10,812,861 — placing #4 for the weekend led by The Martian in its fourth frame. It fell 52.3% to $5,162,398 in its second weekend and saw a 49.7% third frame decline to $2,598,464. The domestic run ended with just $27,367,660. Lionsgate would see returned about $15 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross.
The Last Witch Hunter fared better in a few overseas markets, pulling in $119.5 million across many distributors, with China posting the highest numbers at $27.4 million.
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