Twisted
Rate Movie[Total: 6 Average: 2.8]
- Directed By: Philip Kaufman
- Written By: Sarah Thorp
- Release Date: February 27, 2004
- Domestic Distributor: Paramount
- Cast: Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, Andy Garcia
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $50 million | Financed by: Intertainment |
|---|---|
| Domestic Box Office: $25,198,598 | Overseas Box Office: $15,756,005 |
Director Philip Kaufman followed up his critically acclaimed Quills with this derivative Ashley Judd vehicle, which marked the end of her studio vehicles — the high concept thrillers she had been churning out since the late 90’s. Kaufman has not helmed another big screen movie since Twisted. German based Intertainment purchased Sarah Thorp’s screenplay in February 2002 for $1M and financed the picture for $50 million. Summit handled pre-sales to distributors, which would limit their exposure to the budget.
Back in June 2000, Intertainment entered a financing agreement with Kopelson Entertainment, where the German company would fund 10 Kopelson produced pictures for $500 million over five years — and cover Kopelson’s overhead and development. Twisted is the only film to emerge from that pact, as Intertainment was scaling down its company’s costs, as they prepared for a major court battle with the infamous Franchise Pictures — who defrauded them by inflating budgets on movies they were to financially split costs on, so that Intertainment ended up shouldering most of the costs. Intertainment was eventually awarded $121.7 million.
Paramount signed on as distributor during development and originally scheduled Twisted (formally titled The Blackout Murders — and then shortened to Blackout) for September 19, 2003. It was pushed back until April 2, 2004 and then moved forward to February 27, 2004 — where it would open against a few films that were initially not tracking to open with big numbers: The Passion Of The Christ, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and Club Dread.
Twisted was booked into 2,703 theaters and received awful reviews and came in with a weak $8,904,299 — placing #3 for the weekend and miles behind the surprise smash The Passion Of The Christ. Audiences gave the film a terrible C Cinemascore. Twisted declined 42.4% the following weekend to $5,126,387 and fell a modest 39.9% in its third frame to $3,081,612 but sank 56.8% the fourth weekend to $1,331,684. The domestic run closed with $25,198,598. Paramount would see back about $13.8 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, far below their unreported acquisition cost and P&A expenses.
Twisted played very poorly overseas, pulling in less than a million in most markets and $3.6 million from Italy was the strongest showings. Despite being financed with German coin, it grossed just $549,856 in Germany. The overseas cume was $15,756,005 across numerous distributors and no cash overages would flow back to Intertainment.