THE LAST WITCH HUNTER

The Last Witch Hunter

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  [Total: 34 Average: 3.7]
  Genre(s): Action | Fantasy

• 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
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Box Office Info:

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.