It’s been well documented that Paramount Pictures’ live-action adaptation of mega-popular manga/anime Ghost in the Shell has been underperforming since it opened this past weekend, but the latest box office figures indicate that the movie might wind up costing the studio quite a bit more than we previously thought.
The $110 million sci-fi flick took in just under $19M over the course of its first 3 days on release in the US, and although it did perform a little better overseas, it still only managed to amass about $72 million in total. The Rupert Sanders-directed film has yet to open in China and Japan (it debuts in those countries on April 7th), but even with that boost, it’s expected to hand Paramount a loss of over $60 million once marketing costs are accounted for.
A studio executive recently admitted that the Scarlett Johansson whitewashing controversy surrounding the movie in the build up to its release resulted in negative reviews that ultimately wound up having an impact on the box office, but there are almost certainly more contributing factors. Lucrative franchises like Twilight and Transformers were never what you’d call critically acclaimed, either, but they had the luxury of having large, already-established fanbases, whereas GITS had a loyal, but much smaller cult following. Whatever the reasons may be, the studio was no doubt pinning their hopes on the movie kicking off a new franchise for them, and that doesn’t seem very likely to happen at this point.
Tell us, do you think Ghost in the Shell deserved its negative critical reaction, or is it better than people are giving it credit for? Drop us a comment in the usual place.
