Box Office Report: 'Battleship' Capsizes With $25.3 Mil Launch, Universal Faces Big Loss

CANNES -- Universal and Hasbro Entertainment's big-budget Battleship barely left port in its North American launch, grossing a dismal $25.3 million.

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That's well below the anticipated $35 million to $40 million that Universal and director Peter Berg were hoping for. Battleship, designed to put the studio squarely in the tentpole game, cost at least $209 million to produce, excluding a pricey marketing spend.

Battleship's international gross of $226.8 million provides some cushion, but it needed a strong domestic performance to end up in the black. A $26 million opening means the movie might not clear $70 million or $80 over the long haul domestically, resulting in a notable loss for Universal.

There's already speculation that Battleship, starring Taylor Kitsch, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker and Liam Neeson, will follow the same course as Disney's John Carter, which debuted to $30.2 million in March and topped out at $71.8 million domestically. Overseas, John Carter, also starring Kitsch, earned $200.6 million. The pic resulted in a $200 million los for Disney.

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The continuing strength of Disney and Marvel Studios' The Avengers is no doubt making life difficult for Battleship and other new product (Warner Bros.' Dark Shadows, which opened last weekend, is another underperformer) but box-office observers say Battleship faces its own obstacles as well.

The alien-invasion actioner -- based the classic board game not well known by younger generations -- played notably older Friday, with 66 percent of the audience over the age of 25. Males made up 57 percent of those buying tickets, according to CinemaScore exit-polling data.

Avengers continues to be a box-office monster globally, growing its global gross to $1.18 billion through Sunday to become the No. 4 movie of all time. It easily crushed the competition domestically, earning $55.1 million in its third weekend for a cume of $457.1 million -- Disney's best showing ever. Overseas, it has earned $723.3 million.

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Coming in No. 3 behind Avengers and Battleship wasSacha Baron Cohen's R-rated comedy The Dictator, which opened Wednesday and posted a modest five-day domestic debut of $24.5 million, almost matching Battleship's three day number. For the weekend itself, Dictator grossed $17.4 million.

While the Paramount comedy, costing at least $65 million to produce, was notablly weak in conservative flyover states, it made up ground in more liberal-minded New York and Los Angeles, as well as in Northern Europe.

Dictator grossed a pleasing $30.3 million in its international debut over the weekend from 29 territories (only nine were top 20 markets), coming in 26 percent ahead of Borat and 50 percent of both Bridesmaids and The Hangover, all of which sailed past the $100 million mark internationally ($133 million, $120 million and $190 million respectively).

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Paramount belives Baron Cohen's comedy will continue to overperform with foreign audiences, helping to make up for lost ground in large swaths of the U.S.

Domestically, Dictator received a C CinemaScore and skewed heavily male (65 percent). The pic, which Paramount says cost $65 million to produce, did play notably younger, with 56 percent under the age of 25.

Lionsgate's ensemble comedy What to Expect When You're Expecting opened to No. 5 with a softer-than-expected $10.5 million. At least half the film's $30 million budget was covered through strong foreign presales.

Fox Searchlight had a strong weekend as specialty pic The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel shot up to No. 6, grossing $3.3 million in its third weekend from only 354 theaters for a cume of $8.2 million.

Title Post: Box Office Report: 'Battleship' Capsizes With $25.3 Mil Launch, Universal Faces Big Loss
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