The Infiltrator
Rate Movie[Total: 7 Average: 3.6]
- Directed By: Brad Furman
- Written By: Ellen Sue Brown, Robert Mazur
- Release Date: July 13, 2016
- Domestic Distributor: Broad Green Pictures
- Cast: Bryan Cranston, John Leguizamo, Amy Ryan
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $28 million | Financed by: Good Films; Bank Leumi; LipSync; Cutting Edge Group |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $15,436,808 | Overseas Gross: $5,577,782 |
In 2014, the UK based Good Films secured financing from Bank Leumi for a slate of seven pictures ranging from $12 million to $40 million. This was the first film to go before the cameras and
the budget for The Infiltrator was $28 million.
Good Films, Bank Leumi, the post-production house LipSync and music publishing rights company Cutting Edge Group co-financed The Infiltrator. Cutting Edge Group had setup numerous investments in feature films (The Nice Guys was another 2016 investment) and in return they get the music publishing rights. Cutting Edge would also handle scoring duties, clearances and music supervision and see returns from the soundtrack and sheet-music sales.
Relativity Intl. handled overseas sales for the picture. In mid 2015, Relativity entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the financiers became tangled in Relativity’s reorganization mess. As the sales agent for the film, Relativity was unable to fully perform their duties because of liquidity constraints and the financiers had to enter negotiations to seek damages, as well as get the bankruptcy judge to quickly sign off on Relativity’s termination as the sales agent — so another sales agent could be hired to continue selling the movie to distributors. The financiers agreed to pay Relativity $138,000 for their services, after the severe damage they caused the picture and the case was finally settled on November 10, 2015. Sierra/Affinity took over sales and would remain as Good Films’ sales agent for their future releases.
WME Global handled the US rights and Broad Green Pictures acquired The Infiltrator at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for $4 million and a commitment for a 2016 wide release. The new startup distributor first dated the movie for the slow end of summer frame on August 31, but they moved it forward to July 15. Broad Green then decided to give the pic a head start before the weekend and opened it on Wednesday July 13. The Infiltrator was positioned as adult counter-programming to the Ghostbusters reboot.
Broad Green booked The Infiltrator moderately wide into 1,601 theaters and it opened on the lower end of its modest expectations at $5,303,775. It placed #8 for the weekend led by the holdover toon The Secret Life Of Pets. The Infiltrator declined a modest 37.2% in its second frame to $3,328,382 but it was promptly pulled from most theaters. The film closed its domestic run with $15,436,808. While the major studios command 55% of the theatrical gross, smaller distributors see returned far less (the theater chain Regal returns as low as 34% to small labels, for example), so Broad Green would be lucky to see back about $7 million — leaving much of the P&A expenses in the red and their acquisition cost uncovered.
After the movie pulled in disappointing numbers, Broad Green CEO Gabriel Hammond laid off 6% of his 90 staffers and the president of distribution Travis Reid resigned and was replaced by Richard Fay. Gabriel Hammond told variety: “Audiences love it — it tested through the roof. We knew we had something special on our hands, and we blew it. I’m really disappointed in myself and our team with the job we did with that movie.”
The Infiltrator had a small rollout overseas and the recorded offshore cume stands at just $5.5 million across a few distributors.
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