Oliver Twist
Rate Movie[Total: 4 Average: 3]
- Directed By: Roman Polanski
- Written By: Ronald Harwood
- Release Date: September 23, 2005
- Domestic Distributor: Sony (TriStar)
- Cast: Ben Kingsley, Barney Clark, Jamie Foreman
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $61.4 million | Financed by: RP Prods.; Medusa; Runteam; Etic |
|---|---|
| Domestic Box Office: $2,080,321 | Overseas Box Office: $40,500,000 |
The budget for Oliver Twist
was $61.4 million, which was Roman Polanski’s most expensive production. Financing was from RP Prods. in France, Medusa in Italy, Runteam in the UK and Etic in the Czech Republic. ICM coordinated the difficult financing arrangements.
Summit handled international pre-sales to distributors, which began in 2003 at the Mifed marketplace. Sony acquired US rights and Oliver Twist would be the second film released through their newly revived TriStar unit after Lords Of Dogtown.
TriStar dated Oliver Twist for September 23, 2005 and booked the film into 5 theaters. It landed lukewarm reviews and opened with a soft $68,447 and a $13,689 per screen average. Instead of a slow rollout, Sony expanded Oliver Twist in its second frame to 779 theaters where it was dead on arrival with $888,721 and a dismal $1,141 per screen average. The film remained in 779 theaters in its third weekend and sank 53.7% to $411,790 and then lost all but 98 theaters going into its fourth frame. The US run closed with a miserable $2,080,321. Sony would see returned about $1.1 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which would barely cover the price of just striking release prints. In 2007 Sony moved TriStar topper Valerie Van Galder to run marketing for Sony and the unit was merged back into the Sony fold. It was revived yet again in 2013 as a separate division run by Tom Rothman.
Overseas, Oliver Twist showed mixed to poor results, grossing a total of $40.5 million across numerous distributors. The film posted a decent $8,958,005 for Pathé in France and partial financier Medusa distributed in Italy to $5,014,686 and its UK gross was a soft $4,547,473. The film was dumped by Roadshow in Australia in June 2006 into 41 theaters and pulled in a mere $116,510.