14 DAY TRIAL // Director Ridley Scott’s fifth collaboration with Oscar winner Russell Crowe is a new take on the well-known legend of Robin Hood that premiered this weekend in US theaters, after first opening the 2010 Cannes Film Festival outside of competition. Despite lots of marketing and much hype, the film missed the target in terms of reception from US audiences, InTheNews informs.
Though it did not fare that badly, making a little over $37 million in its first weekend, the fact that this is a film that cost an estimated $230+ million to make (marketing costs not included, according to industry sources) makes of it a complete failure. To add insult to injury, earlier release “Iron Man 2” made more over the weekend that Scott’s film, with the former bringing in another $53 million to further consolidate its statute as this summer’s strongest contender.
“Ridley Scott’s new take on the legend of Robin Hood has failed to land a direct hit on the US box office, debuting at number two after its first weekend on release. The Universal Pictures release, Scott’s fifth collaboration with Russell Crowe, opened the Cannes film festival last week, though the historical epic is not in competition in the south of France. But with an opening North American box office haul of $37.1 million (£25.7 million), Robin Hood has failed to unseat last week’s number one, Iron Man 2, from the top spot,” InTheNews writes.
“The superhero sequel took $53 million (£37.7 million) to retain the summit in the US box office charts and has now taken over $200 million (£139 million) in the US alone. Robin Hood’s US performance, however, was worse than box office experts had been predicting, with an opening weekend total of $40 million (£27.7 million) expected for the action film, which cost at least $155 million (£107.6 million) to produce,” the same media outlet further says.
Newcomer “Letters to Juliet,” starring Amanda Seyfried, brought in $13.7 million, “Just Write” made $8.5 million, while “How To Train Your Dragon” showed its staying power for yet another week, by making $5.1 million more.