Jonah Hex

  • Jonah Hex box office
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    [Total: 23 Average: 2.4]
  • Directed By: Jimmy Hayward
  • Written By: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
  • Release Date: June 18, 2010
  • Domestic Distributor: Warner Bros
  • Cast: Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender

Box Office Info:
Budget: $65 million Financed by: Warner Bros; Legendary
Domestic Gross: $10,547,117 Overseas Gross: $475,579

“Oh, Jonah Hex, hated it. Hated it. The experience of making it — that would have been a better movie based on what we did. As opposed to what ended up happening to it, which is going back and reshooting 66 pages in 12 days.”
–Josh Brolin


The disastrous production of Jonah Hex began in July 2007 when Crank directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor were hired by Warner Bros to pen the screenplay and direct the picture.  In November 2008, the two were removed from the project, citing creative differences, but Josh Brolin was already outspoken about the screenplay they left behind: “When I first read it I thought, ‘Oh, my God. It’s awful!’ And then I had a moment a week later and I thought, ‘Why is it awful?’ Maybe the thing to do is to do the most awful movie I can find.”

Animation director Jimmy Hayward was brought in to take over this doomed fiasco.  Jonah Hex was financed by Warner Bros and Legendary for what was to be an $80 million budget, but before production began they slashed the budget to $40 million without adjusting the script.  The result was such a mess, that director Francis Lawrence was hired to oversee 66 pages of reshoots crammed into 12 days of shooting, which added about $25 million to the budget.

Warner Bros dated Jonah Hex for June 18, 2010 and it would be the second release from Warner Bros newly created DC Entertainment Inc., which was run by Diane Nelson — the first release was The Losers, which flopped two months prior.  Word had spread of the troubled production and there were months of bad buzz leading up to the release.  Jonah Hex was positioned as counter-programming to Toy Story 3 and WB expected the pic to pull in a modest $10 million opening weekend.

Reviews were predictably awful and it was dead on arrival with $5,379,365 — placing #7 for the weekend led by Toy Story 3.  Audiences gave Jonah Hex a poor C+ cinemascore and it sank 69.7% in its second frame to $1,627,442 and promptly lost most of its theater count.  At the time, it had the second largest 2nd weekend theater loss on record, losing 2,475 theaters.  The pic burned out with just $10,547,117.

The terrible domestic run killed off a wide overseas release and Warner Bros dumped it straight to video in most markets and it pulled in a mere $475,579 offshore.

8 Comments

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  1. the movie was GREAT ! great actors GREAT STORY ! even loved that the dog stayed with him ! i want to see a part 2 ! critics are gonna hate but it’s only cause they don’t know how to appreciate a great movie ! with great all around characters , Bring on part 2 stop worrying about a hand full of haters, haters gonna hate but they still talking about the movie the fans like me like it ALOT ! ( chanting ) PART 2 ….PART 2

  2. The movie was ok but I do hope to see a better 2nd movie with josh brolin. I also would like to see Jonah be incorporated into the dc universe with justice league or some other group.

  3. I loved it even though it didn’t fallow the comic’s and I still believe it should be different than the original so you think outside the box

  4. This movie was an insult to anyone who had ever read and enjoyed a Jonah Hex comic.

    I remember being a really big fan of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray’s incarnation of the character in the comics and being absolutely sickened by what a festing pile of dogshit with movie was. I did laugh at that horrible CGI machine gun though.

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