Down With Love

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  • Directed By: Peyton Reed
  • Written By: Eve Ahlert, Dennis Drake
  • Release Date: May 9, 2003
  • Domestic Distributor: FOX
  • Cast: Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Sarah Paulson

Box Office Info:
Budget: $35 million Financed by: FOX; Regency Enterprises; Mediastream
Domestic Gross: $20,305,251 Overseas Gross: $19,162,860

down with love 2003
American Beauty producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen set this Rock Hudson/Doris Day throwback Down With Love as their follow up project to the Oscar winner.  FOX purchased the spec script from Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake for high six figures in early 2000 and the studio financed the picture for $35 million with Regency Enterprises and some coin from the German tax shelter fund Mediastream.

FOX dated Down With Love for a wide release on May 16 as counter-programming to The Matrix Reloaded and opted to give the New York City based movie a one week exclusive run in one NYC theater on May 9, where it pulled in a strong $45,029.  Reviews were mixed and The Matrix Reloaded swallowed up the romantic comedy, which grossed a mere $7,001,906.  It placed #4 for the weekend led by The Matrix sequel.  Audiences gave the film a poor C+ cinemascore and Down With Love declined 42.2% the next weekend to $4,046,135 and then sank 61.2% in its third wide frame to $1,570,924.  The domestic run closed with a poor $20,305,251.

FOX raised eyebrows in the UK when they submitted Down With Love as the first big budget film from a studio to be shown as a first run feature to EasyCinema — a short lived theater chain that sold tickets at different prices, usually extremely low and sometimes as low as 32 cents.  The EasyCinema experiment was a failure and probably dented the gross of the film, which pulled in a weak $3,484,385 and posted the the highest overseas number.  Down With Love tanked in every market, grossing a total of $19,162,860.  The worldwide total was $39.4 million, returning about $21.6 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which would not even cover P&A expenses.

FOX packaged Down With Love with seven other FOX movies — Point Break, The Princess Bride, My Cousin Vinny, Unlawful Entry, The Good Son, Brubaker and Class Action for the cable channel A&E for $2.5M.

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