It: Chapter Two was the No. 1 film for the second consecutive weekend and its totals have pushed the It franchise passed the $1 billion mark at the global box office. That’s the good news for Warner Bros. The bad news is that Oscars hopeful The Goldfinch rode a wave of bad reviews out of the Toronto International Film Festival to one of the worst opening weekends of the year. The film will ultimately lose both Warner Bros. and Amazon (AMZN) Studios a significant chunk of change.
The Goldfinch slogged through the worst opening of any film debuting in at least 2,500 theaters nationwide this year with just $2.6 million against a $45 million budget before marketing. That included just $870,000 on Friday. Amazon Studios spent between $16 million and $18 million for exclusive worldwide streaming rights and co-financed 40 percent of the movie, which is an adaptation of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning Donna Tartt novel of the same name. Warner Bros. handled marketing and distribution costs.
This disappointing opening will lead to losses of around $30 million for WB and roughly $20 million for Amazon, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The outlet notes that The Goldfinch is on pace to lose between $40 million and $50 million overall.
As of this writing, The Goldfinch—which stars Ansel Elgort, Sarah Paulson, Nicole Kidman, Finn Wolfhard, Jeffrey Wright and Luke Wilson and was directed by John Crowley—has grossed just $825,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $3.5 million. Its foreign ticket sales will go a long way in determining its final losses.
For Warner Bros., The Goldfinch joins fellow recent under performers such as The Kitchen, which earned $15 million against a $38 million budget, and New Line’s Blinded by the Light, which earned north of $11 million after being acquired for $15 million. However, the success of It: Chapter Two and the upcoming Joker, which is looking like a box office smash hit, will likely offset those losses. For Amazon, The Goldfinch continues a frustrating box office year in which quality films have failed to pop commercially.
