Angel Eyes
Rate Movie[Total: 139 Average: 4.4]
- Directed By: Luis Mandoki
- Written By: Gerald Di Pego
- Release Date: May 18, 2001
- Domestic Distributor: Warner Bros
- Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Jim Caviezel, Terrence Howard
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $38 million (estimated) | Financed by: Franchise Pictures; Intertainment |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $24,174,218 | Overseas Gross: $5,541,388 |
Angel Eyes was financed by the infamous Franchise Pictures and the German based Intertainment. Intertainment sued Franchise in December 2000 for fraudulently inflating the budgets for their movies, so that Intertainment ended up shouldering more than the 47% of the production costs they contractually agreed to cover for a huge slate of Franchise pics. Franchise head Elie Samaha would make phony deferments called “approved overages” that were made up charges and with the fake overages, Franchise would report the padded budget to Intertainment. At the time of release, the reported budget for Angel Eyes was $38 million, but the movie was one of many films listed in the Intertainment lawsuit — so trim a few million off that reported cost.
Warner Bros handled the domestic release for most of the garbage that Franchise produced and originally dated Angel Eyes for a late July release, but moved it forward to May 18, where it would act as counter-programming to Shrek. WB booked the poorly reviewed film into 2,375 theaters and it opened within its modest expectations at $9,225,575 — placing #4 for the weekend led by Shrek. Angel Eyes declined 46.6% to $4,928,482 in its second frame and then sank 61.7% to $1,888,660 in its third weekend. The domestic run closed with a poor $24,174,218. Warner Bros would see returned about $13.2M after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which would not cover their P&A expenses.
Angel Eyes was given a small rollout overseas and cumed just $5.5M across a handful of distributors.
The Intertainment lawsuit was successful and they were awarded a $77 million judgement against Franchise and Samaha and wiped out the scummy company in 2004. Before that judgement was handed down to Franchise, Morgan Creek also sued the company, as they had acquired domestic distribution rights in 1998 for eight Franchise films — “The Whole Nine Yards (Franchise’s only hit movie),” “Battlefield Earth,” “Art of War,” Get Carter,” “The Pledge,” “3000 Miles to Graceland,” Angel Eyes” and “Heist.” Along with a distribution fee, Morgan Creek would receive 15% of the film’s profits and they would have a right of first refusal on distributing the movies. Franchise never paid out any money for “The Whole Nine Yards” and they never offered Morgan Creek any other additional films to accept or pass on.