Ang Lee had hoped that double the Will Smith would equal double the box office success, but unfortunately, it looks like it might’ve had the opposite effect, as Gemini Man is now on its way to becoming a huge box office bomb.
The action film stars Smith as a hitman who’s at war with a younger version of himself and features groundbreaking de-aging technology that the director was hoping would turn the movie into a blockbuster. It didn’t, though, and the flick is now on track to lose around $75 million after a significant second weekend drop-off.
Gemini Man made just $8 million in its second frame domestically, as well as plummeting 59% overseas. The feature was expected to perform well in China, but even those audiences were less than enthusiastic about the movie, as it opened to a subpar $21 million, finishing behind Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
Thus far, Lee’s long-anticipated film has hauled in about $118.7 million. That number’s nothing to sneeze at, but it becomes a lot less impressive when put into context. For instance, the $140 million production budget, along with the $100 million marketing campaign, makes the box office numbers look really ugly and Paramount is definitely going to hemorrhage money on this venture.
A lot of the production costs have to do with the aforementioned high-tech de-aging technology. Lee also employed a very high frame rate when shooting, which is expensive, too. It’s something he also did during Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, which disappointed at the box office as well.
The Academy Award-winning director will now have to figure out how to bounce back after a couple of high-profile flops in a row. Smith’s next feature, meanwhile, will be Bad Boys for Life, the conclusion to the highly successful trilogy which will likely perform a lot better than Gemini Man.