Overlord

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    [Total: 61 Average: 4.1]
  • Directed By: Julius Avery
  • Written By: Mark L. Smith, Billy Ray
  • Release Date: November 9, 2018
  • Domestic Distributor: Paramount
  • Cast: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier

Box Office Info:
Budget: $38 million Financed by: Paramount
Domestic Box Office: $21,704,844 Overseas Box Office: $19,953,000


Screenwriter Billy Ray pitched Overlord in 2007 and the Bad Robot project was acquired by Paramount, but development was not fast-tracked until a decade later.  The budget for Overlord was $38 million and Paramount fully financed.   With most B-movie genre fare these days designated to low-budget productions (ie. Blumhouse) or sanitized mega-budget international co-productions (ie. The Meg), these once prevalent mid-budget B-movies have become rare in the corporate age — and will continue to be so, as long as audiences sit these theatrical releases out.

Paramount first dated Overlord for October 26, 2018 but pushed it back two weeks to November 9.  It was given a strong marketing push and primed for a price gouging IMAX rollout in about 300 locations.  Overlord bowed against Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch and would compete against the genre pic The Girl in the Spider’s Web for box office crumbs.  Reviews were lukewarm to positive, but tracking was pointing to a soft $10M – $13M start.

Overlord opened on the low end of expectations with $10,202,108 — placing #3 for the weekend led by The Grinch.  These types of one quadrant (young males) pictures are usually front-loaded and Overlord was no exception and sank 62.8% to $3,790,251 in its second frame and then plummeted 70.7% to $1,112,065 in its third session.  The domestic run closed with a poor $21,704,844.

The offshore run stalled at a terrible $19.9M.  The worldwide total was $41.6M and Paramount would see returned about $22M after theaters take their percentage of the gross — leaving eight figures worth of P&A expenses in the red and the budget at a loss.  Before Overlord, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot had not misfired at the box office since Morning Glory (2010).

11 Comments

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  1. Foreign run ended at $19,953,000 According to Box Office Mojo. They don’t list Japan in their rundown so probably went straight to DVD there.

  2. ACK! It made it in. Such a shame, I had an absolute blast watching it.

    Really, Paramount should’ve picked a better release date and offered stronger marketing. I think there were only two trailers that opposed each other in tone, which may have mislead audiences (though it’s less offensive than what happened with mother! and Suburbicon). Hopefully Bumblebee can make enough to offset the losses.

    • It was from the previous regime at Paramount. Didn’t have that much interest in the film, so they just sort of let it die.

    • It could have done a little bit better in October. Sure, it would have gone against the juggernaut known as Halloween (2018) but it would have been another horror movie in October.

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