Duplex

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    [Total: 6 Average: 3.2]
  • Directed By: Danny DeVito
  • Written By: Larry Doyle
  • Release Date: September 26, 2003
  • Domestic Distributor: Miramax
  • Cast: Ben Stiller, Drew Barrymore, Eileen Essell

Box Office Info:
Budget: $65 million Financed by: Miramax
Domestic Box Office: $9,692,135 Overseas Box Office: $9,630,000


Back in 2000, Bob and Harvey Weinstein renegotiated their contracts with Disney to increase Miramax’s annual budget to $700 million from $450 million.  With this influx of cash, Miramax was shying away from independent cinema to studio sized films and backed this Danny DeVito directed picture.  The budget for Duplex was an expensive $65 million.   Some exposure to the budget was offset by overseas sales to numerous distributors.  DeVito’s back to back directing efforts of Death To Smoochy and Duplex ended his studio directing days.

Miramax originally dated the movie for release in February, but then pushed it back to October 24, but then slated Scary Movie 3 on that date and moved Duplex up to October 3 and finally moved it forward a week to September 26.

Duplex received poor reviews, had little buzz and was dead on arrival with $4,617,128 — placing #7 for the weekend led by The Rundown.  It fell 52% in its second frame to $2,214,920 and promptly lost most of its theater count.  Duplex vanished quickly with only $9,692,135.  Miramax would see back about $5.2 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which barely puts a dent in their P&A spend and leaves the budget in the red.

Overseas, the film played poorly in every market.  Disney dumped the pic in Australia, where it made all of $18,318 and France posted the highest offshore gross with a poor $1.2 million.  The overseas cume was $9,630,000.

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