Movies
‘The Mummy’s’ International Box Office Saving Universal’s Dark Universe?
The Mummy vs. Wonder Woman couldn’t be more 2017 in that the real battle was actually Tom Cruise vs. Wonder Woman.
In 2017, intellectual property is way more powerful than stars. In lamens terms, Spider-Man, Batman, Transformers, Wonder Woman, have more power than Cruise. So, when Universal’s The Mummy went toe-to-toe with Warner Bros. and DC’s Wonder Woman, it got slapped around here in the States. The studio was betting on Cruise’s star power but couldn’t escape the superhero’s whip in her second week of release.
Deadline had heard that The Mummy‘s true budget was closer to $200 million than the reported $125M. This would mean that it needs to earn a worldwide gross (not net) of $750 million. Many summer blockbusters top $1 billion, which is one reason this wasn’t the worst bet. The biggest mistake, however, was going up against Wonder Woman. Because of this decision, The Mummy only pulled in a dismal $35M here in the States. However, the international box office could save the Dark Universe. As of this writing, the film sits at an estimated $175M worldwide.
[Related] Review: The Mummy – Big Blockbusters Work When Studios Put Faith in Female Leads
The site notes that the question on The Mummy now becomes its legs, and that’s where it gets questionable in terms of how much the film can recoup. Next weekend will be telling with no major new wide releases on deck. Some see at least a 2.2 multiple offshore. But, Cruise has a notably sizeable footprint in France and Japan where The Mummy has yet to unwrap.
Again, $175M is far off from $750M, but let’s see what happens in the next few weeks before we start gasping.
Assuming Universal doesn’t get cold feet (they won’t, not yet), next up is the Bill Condon-directed Bride Of Frankenstein, set for release on February 14, 2019. Tom Cruise has been set up as the franchise’s Van Helsing, so expect him to appear in all of the films, much like Tony Stark/Iron Man in Marvel’s universe.
Paramount is heading to Sleepy Hollow with a brand new feature film take on the classic Headless Horseman tale, with Lindsey Anderson Beer (Pet Sematary: Bloodlines) announced to direct the movie back in 2022. But is that project still happening, now two years later?
The Hollywood Reporter lets us know this afternoon that Paramount Pictures has renewed its first-look deal with Lindsey Anderson Beer, and one of the projects on the upcoming slate is the aforementioned Sleepy Hollow movie that was originally announced two years ago.
THR details, “Additional projects on the development slate include… Sleepy Hollow with Anderson Beer attached to write, direct, and produce alongside Todd Garner of Broken Road.”
You can learn more about the slate over on The Hollywood Reporter. It also includes a supernatural thriller titled Here Comes the Dark from the writers of Don’t Worry Darling.
The origin of all things Sleepy Hollow is of course Washington Irving’s story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” which was first published in 1819. Tim Burton adapted the tale for the big screen in 1999, that film starring Johnny Depp as main character Ichabod Crane.
More recently, the FOX series “Sleepy Hollow” was also based on Washington Irving’s tale of Crane and the Headless Horseman. The series lasted four seasons, cancelled in 2017.
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