Access Media Claims 'The Running Man' Bombed At The Box Office Due To Skydance Purchasing Paramount
The access media is blaming The Running Man’s box office bomb on the purchase of Paramount by Skydance and David Ellison.
Edgar Wright’s remake of the 1980s film grossed $16.4 million at domestic theaters and added another $11.1 million internationally for a global total of just $27.6 million. The film had a production budget of around $110 million which means it needed to gross between $275 million and $330 million to break even.
For comparison, the original 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger grossed $8.1 million domestically, but if you adjust for inflation that comes to around $23.2 million.
As for why the film bombed in its opening weekend, Anthony D’Alessandro at Deadline put the blame on David Ellison’s purchase of Paramount. He claimed, “Running Man‘s fumbling at the B.O. stemmed largely from the administration change-over from the old guard to the new under David Ellison at Paramount.”
Additionally, he added, “Running Man also suffered a blow when there was a shake-up in the motion picture marketing department with the exit of Global Distribution and Marketing Boss Marc Weinstock earlier this fall as the studio waited for the arrival of the new department head Josh Goldstine.”
He also claimed that “marketing dollars were cut” after the film was projected to only gross $20 million when it arrived on tracking three weeks ago.
While D’Alessandro is blaming Skydance’s purchase of Paramount and the changes happening at the company, it’s likely the film just wasn’t that good and the marketing for it just didn’t appeal to moviegoers.
As for the film’s quality, reviewer Jeremy Jahns described it as forgettable and “Dollar Store Minority Report.”
He also said, “This movie has pacing issues and it is not the only thing plaguing it. This movie does have some interesting themes it’s going for here, but when you get to the point, you know it’s going to go to: the big super media corporation isn’t forthcoming. They’re really shady, fabricating lies, throwing it out there in the name of controlling the masses. Maybe it feels old because a lot of movies have done that at this point. Maybe it feels old because we’re living through it at this point.”
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The remake no one asked for. Also, some of us want as little association with Stephen King as is possible.
Blaming the Skydance purchase for poor box office performace is such a convenient excuse. The film needed to make 275 to 330 million to break even and only pulled in 27.6 million globally. At that scale the problem isnt marketing shake ups its that audiences just werent interested. Jeremy Jahns calling it Dollar Store Minority Report pretty much sums up the issue. When your remake feels both forgettable and thematically outdated before it even releases your not going to get people to show up no mater how much you spend on marketing.