Delgo Has Worst Opening for a Wide Release Ever
As I mentioned in yesterday’s weekend box office report, the animated film Delgo had a pretty rough opening, earning just $511,920 in ticket sales despite playing in over 2000 theatres. As it turns out, the movie did so poorly that it actually set a record: the worst opening weekend for a wide release ever. Yes, it did even worse than The Adventures of Pluto Nash and Major League: Back to the Minors.
I guess it’s not too shocking, considering that the movie had very little marketing money behind it and looked extremely generic, but it is a bit sad because it comes from an independent studio that was the product of one man’s dream. In the end they did manage to complete a full-length animated film with an impressive voice cast, but they just couldn’t find an audience for it. Sometimes those underdog stories don’t have happy endings after all. It’s interesting to note, however, that two of the other worst wide release openings also came earlier this year with College and Deception. The movie that previously held the record was the Canadian parking garage thriller P2. By comparison, all other movies on the list at least broke the $2 million mark. That’s gotta hurt.
Comments (7)
Wow. Back in 1999 we wouldn’t have dreamed we’d ever hear the words “Freddie Prinze, Jr.”, “Jennifer Love Hewitt” and “Total bomb” in the same sentence. What a difference a decade makes!
Posted by Joel on December 16th, 2008Wow.. can’t say I’ve even heard of this flick, and I generally browse the movie stuff. Hmm.. odd.
Posted by cuebert on December 16th, 2008I’d never heard of it either. When I saw the picture in the post I thought “That looks original, wonder when it comes out”
Posted by Alex on December 16th, 2008If its not promoted, it means there is some anti-New World Order theme or something akin to it.
Posted by Baychuk on December 16th, 2008I’d like to read a bit more about the guy who created the studio.
Posted by Neil M on December 16th, 2008I just heard about that movie on opening day, when the reviews were posted online. At first I thought it was a US-only release, until I saw local showtimes in the papers. Sad story, but I admit the trailer was pretty awful-looking. I’m sure it would have found an audience eventually if it had been a better movie.
As for the former reigning title, P2: I got comp tickets to a preview screening of that from a publicist friend. It was so bad, it was hilarious! I’ve never laughed so hard at a bad movie in my life. If you’re looking for something unintentionally funny, I highly recommend you look this one up.
Posted by Ashley on December 17th, 2008It feels bad disrespecting this movie, because I kow how much work is put into it, but this just looks way too bland for these times. What exactly did they expect to happen?
Posted by Bas on December 19th, 2008Leave a Reply