The Hollywood Reporter
October 12, 2015
‘Pan’ (Warner Bros. Pictures)
By Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter
Early on in Pan, a young Peter Pan asks “where’s the bacon” when being served a watery bowl of gruel at an orphanage in World War II London.
Little did British director Joe Wright and Warner Bros. know how prophetic the question would become.
Over
the weekend, the ambitious Peter Pan origin story bombed at the North
American box office, grossing a paltry $15.5 million despite a $150
million production budget and a friendly PG rating. Pan, from
Warner Bros. and co-financing partner RatPac-Dune Entertainment, could
lose more than $100 million unless the live-action movie does huge
business overseas, a tough proposition.
The
film took in $20.5 million this weekend internationally from 52 markets
representing 40 percent of the foreign marketplace, putting its early
global total at a worrisome $40.6 million (it opened in Australia two
weekends ago). One hope is China, where Pan rolls out Oct. 22. So far, it is doing best in Latin America, while struggling in Europe.
Wright’s
grand plan for his trip to Neverland didn’t pan out. The lucrative
family audience rejected the live-action film, starring Hugh Jackman,
Rooney Mara, Garrett Hedlund, newcomer Levi Miller and plenty of special
effects. It’s another blow for the leadership at at Warners, which has
suffered a string of misses this year, including pricey titles Jupiter Ascending and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The studio declined comment on Pan’s
performance, but one Warners executive said, “it came in so much
lighter than anything we could have predicted. The movie failed to bring
in an audience of any size.”
Only 23 percent of Pan’s audience was under the age of 18. As a way of comparison, 44 percent of ticket buyers going to see Disney’s live-action Cinderella earlier this year were under the age of 18.
Females, and especially younger females, fueled hits like Cinderella and Disney’s Maleficent. Femmes made up 77 percent of Cinderella’s audience on opening weekend and 60 percent of Maleficent ticket buyers. This demo were less keen to see Pan, making up 55 percent of the audience.
Leading up to its release, Pan
was ravaged by critics. Some reviewers described it as a sort ofIndiana
Jones meets Avatar, with Jackman’s Blackbeard compared to the villain
in Mad Max: Fury Road. And Wright’s decision to have Blackbeard
and his gang of pirates sing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was
heavily debated. Pan is the first studio tentpole directed by Wright, known for speciality fare like Atonement and Pride and Prejudice.
“Reboots
are always tricky,” said box-office analyst Phil Contrino. “There’s
always the risk that fans of a property won’t be in tune with the new
vision and that seems to be what has happened here.”
Adds a rival studio executive, “Pan is neither fish nor fowl. It’s trying to be too many things.”
The
film also sparked controversy when Wright chose Mara, instead of a
Native American actress, to play Tiger Lily, prompting a petition urging
Warner Bros. to stop casting white actors as people of color.
“Tough
reviews, a change of release date and other factors conspired to create
this opening weekend performance. Certainly, while the origin story
concept in and of itself is not a bad thing, audiences may have had
trouble grasping the concept of the film,” said Paul Dergarabedian of
Rentrak. “The silver lining may come in the international theatrical
marketplace and of course down the road on home video where curious
audiences may want to check out the film and have additional in home
content for their kids.”
Pan
was originally set to open this past July, but a worried Warners
delayed its release to fall, presumably a quieter corridor. The movie
had tested poorly, and the studio wanted to do reshoots. But that plan
didn’t quite work out.
Related: 'Pan’: Film Review
Dergarabedian and Contrino cite competition from holdovers The Martian and Hotel Transylvania 2 as another reason Pan got destroyed. Over the weekend, 10 percent of The Martian’s audience was under the age of 18, proof that families are turning out to see the space epic, starring Matt Damon. And Hotel Transylvania 2 is a natural draw for younger kids.
For Hotel Transylvania 2 to beat Pan in its third weekend, both domestically and internationally, is a stinging blow.
“Following the huge success of Hotel Transylvania 2 wasn’t an easy task,” says Contrino. “And it definitely stole away some of the momentum Pan might have had.”
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