The Hurricane Heist

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  • Directed By: Rob Cohen
  • Written By: Jeff Dixon & Scott Windhauser
  • Release Date: March 9, 2018
  • Domestic Distributor: Entertainment Studios
  • Cast: Toby Kebbell, Maggie Grace, Ryan Kwanten

Box Office Info:
Budget: $35 million Financed by: Foresight Unlimited; Sky Cinema
Domestic Box Office: $6,115,825 Overseas Box Office: $24,888,359


The Hurricane Heist was packaged and sold by Foresight Unlimited, which kicked off pre-sales at the 2016 European Film Market in Berlin and the hot project almost sold out worldwide.  It was presented to international distributors under the title Category 5, as a genre mashup of a weather related disaster movie and a $102 million heist.  Fully (and probably unintentionally) embracing this project’s idiocy, the heist was increased to $600 million and the title changed to the hilarious The Hurricane Heist.  This was also looked at as a potential franchise, because why the hell not?  You can slam any subgenre next to a hurricane.

The budget for The Hurricane Heist was $35 million and costs were reduced by filming the Alabama setting in Bulgaria.  Financing came from Foresight Unlimited and UK broadcaster Sky Cinema (took UK rights to premiere the movie simultaneously on cable and in theaters).  In July 2017, Entertainment Studios acquired domestic rights and the company had just released their first theatrical feature 47 Meters Down a few weeks prior.  The Hurricane Heist was dated for March 9, 2018 where it would bow against A Wrinkle In Time, Strangers: Prey at Night and Gringo.

Entertainment Studios invested into an expensive marketing spend for this nonsense and 5 days before the movie’s release, iSpotTV reported that $13.49 million was spent on TV ads.  Millions more would be spent in the days leading up to the release and after other traditional means of advertising and distribution costs, the P&A expenses would be near $30 million.  Despite the strong push from Entertainment Studios, The Hurricane Heist was tracking for a soft mid single digit weekend.  The Hurricane Heist was not screened for critics, as if they could hide just how fucking stupid this movie is — and if anything, the comical reviews that eventually posted sparked added interest, declaring this as a great bad movie.

Mark Damon, Chairman of Foresight Unlimited, said after the sale to Entertainment, “We’re delighted to have Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures acquire this big budget event film. Byron Allen and his team are very creative, aggressive, and an absolute force to be reckoned with. I’m highly confident that The Hurricane Heist will be a solid hit for this new, innovative distributor.”  Well, back on planet earth, The Hurricane Heist pulled in an embarrassing $3,024,399 opening weekend — placing #9 for the frame led by holdover Black Panther.  The pic sank 65.8% to $1,033,247 the following frame and then promptly lost most of its theater count.  The domestic run closed with just $6,115,825.

Hurricane Heist saw minimal business overseas, where it pulled in $24,888,359 across numerous distributors, with the bulk of that number coming from China at $13.6M.

5 Comments

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  1. The “bad” guys are fucking idiots, and horrible actors. ESPECIALLY THE IRISH MORON. A total greasy rat !

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