The Spirit
| Budget: $60 million | Financed by: OddLot Entertainment; Lionsgate |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $19,806,188 | Domestic Distributor: Lionsgate |
| Overseas Gross: $19,225,149 | Directed by: Frank Miller |
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson Scarlett Johansson |
Produced by: Deborah Del Prete |
OddLot Entertainment co-financed the $60 million film with Lionsgate and Lionsgate distributed The Spirit in the US and UK. OddLot sold off overseas rights, where Sony swooped up rights in France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia and most of Latin America. Lionsgate pushed the release forward from a January 16th, 2009 release date, to open over the crowded Christmas frame, where it directly competed with Valkyrie for similar auds. The Spirit was tracking for a modest low teens opening, but flopped with $6,463,278 — placing #9 for the holiday weekend led by all new openers: Marley and Me, Bedtime Stories, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Valkyrie. Audiences seemed to enjoy the pic as much as critics and gave it a toxic C- cinemascore. All of the films in wide release saw a modest decline over the New Year frame, except the The Spirit, which declined 49.6% to $3,259,898. The Spirit was pulled from release after four weeks with $19,806,188. After theaters take their portion of the gross, Lionsgate would see back about $10.8 million, which would not even cover half of the ad spend. Lionsgate opened the film in the UK to poor numbers at $1,964,486 and it fell 81.2% in its second frame to $368,836 and left UK cinemas with $3.2 million. Lionsgate posted a third quarter loss of $93.4 million, blaming the atrocious box office run of The Spirit, Punisher: War Zone and Transporter 3. The UK gross, would be the strongest overseas showings and it pulled in $19.2 million across multiple distributors. OddLot replaced Deborah Del Prete from her top post after 23 years, when The Spirit reportedly lost OddLot tens of millions of dollars.