Movie "Delgo" Worst Box Office Opening of All Time (MC: 27, RT: 12%)

[Cow_k]

Sorry if Old'd, didn't see it anywhere.

Animated 'Delgo' Has Worst Wide Release Opening Ever

Don't feel too left out if you missed seeing the animated adventure movie "Delgo" this past weekend. No one did. In fact, the movie broke a record for having the worst opening ever for a film in wide release. "Delgo" earned a measly $511,920 this weekend on 2,160 screens, not even breaking the top ten. That's an average of $237 per screen for the three days. If you figure there were five screenings a day, and assume ticket prices are about $8, that comes out to two people in the theater per showing. By comparison, the Golden Globe-nominated drama "Doubt" earned roughly the same amount of money, but it was only in 15 theaters.

If you go to the link, you can see just how painful a blow this really was as one guy basically fronted the 40 million dollars it took to make the movie. Below is the top ten worst openings just to show how bad it really did (Taken from the above link). Funny enough, three of them are from the last year.

Rank Title Opening Theaters Per Screen Average Release Date
1 Delgo $511,920 2,160 $237 12/12/08
2 P2 $2,083,398 2,131 $977 11/9/07
3 Major League: Back to the Minors $2,087,011 2,322 $899 4/17/98
4 The Real Cancun $2,108,796 2,261 $932 4/25/03
5 College $2,153,109 2,123 $1,014 8/29/08
6 The Adventures of Pluto Nash $2,182,900 2,320 $940 8/16/02
7 All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 $2,256,118 2,037 $1,107 3/29/96
8 Deception $2,312,146 2,001 $1,155 4/25/08
9 I Dreamed of Africa $2,411,445 2,112 $1,141 5/5/00
10 Teacher's Pet $2,461,252 2,027 $1,214 1/16/04

[Demisses]

7 All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 $2,256,118 2,037 $1,107 3/29/96
I loved this movie as a kid
well the first one at least....

[Cow_k]

All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 was awful. A complete disgrace when compared to how great the first movie was. Just like The Secret of Nimh 2 and all of the Land Before Time movies past the first one. It was just an easy attempt at a cash in taking movies that actually had some really adult themes and turning them into singing and dancing PBS jokes. I actually bawled like a baby at the end of All Dogs Go to Heaven 1.

[Zosi]

I didn't notice the "2" at first, and thought the same. The sequel really *was* fucking horrible though. Basically, they'd have Don Bluth make great original movies (Secret of NIMH, An American Tale, All Dogs, Land Before Time), then take the characters and churn out a bunch of shitty sequels without him. Thankfully most were direct-to-VHS, but for some reason All Dogs 2 wasn't.

[Boyiee]

Suddenly have the urge to watch some Fifle.

[Mizango]

The Tomb is still the worst movie humanity has ever produced.

[Byrd]

I never even heard of this movie. Not that I would have gone to see it, but it sounds like it needed some more marketing, regardless of the quality of the movie. It's too bad, though, sounds like it was trying to buck the traditional Studio system.

This is all too bad because the story of the making of "Delgo" has the makings of a great Hollywood underdog story. 36-year-old entrepreneur Marc Adler decided he wanted to direct and produce a $40 million computer animated kids' flick completely independent of Tinseltown behemoths like Disney and Dreamworks.
Starting in 2001, Adler and his small Atlanta-based animation company Fathom Studios toiled for years on a tight budget. They lined up an impressive, if eclectic, cast of voice actors including Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Val Kilmer, Malcolm McDowell, Kelly Ripa, and Anne Bancroft in her final role (she died in 2005). And when Adler couldn't get a Hollywood studio interested in his movie, he raised eyebrows by releasing it himself through distributor-for-hire Freestyle Releasing. It was a huge risk; one that ultimately didn't pay off. There wasn't the sort of marketing budget needed to make a film stand out in the already crowded holiday movie season.

[Plow]

Suddenly have the urge to watch some Fifle.

http://www.filmsduparadoxe.com/fievel2.jpg


Fievel.




<.<

[Epical]

$40M...?! God damn that's a huge loss lol.

EDIT: The cast isn't anything to spit on either... what a shame.

[Plow]

Will be funny if the attention from the bad opening results in people... actually noticing it, and it turns out ok heh.


I know I've never heard or seen a single thing about it before this.

[Cow_k]

I wondered the same thing at first, but apparently the movie really isn't very good.

[Epical]

Will be funny if the attention from the bad opening results in people... actually noticing it, and it turns out ok heh.


I know I've never heard or seen a single thing about it before this.

All this attention will definitely do something for its popularity, but not nearly enough to even come close to at least breaking even... heh.

[zoobernut]

Really this is the first time I have heard of it. Seems like there was no advertising for it whatsoever. Too bad. I like it when people go independent and succeed.

[Katlan]

Will be funny if the attention from the bad opening results in people... actually noticing it, and it turns out ok heh.


I know I've never heard or seen a single thing about it before this.

This movie is the result of bad marketing... most ppl (including me) haven't heard of it & it doesn't matter how good of a cast you have or how big a budget the movie is... if you don't market it well you better pray it's a sleeper hit

[Cow_k]

What I want to know is how a movie that wasn't promoted in any real way at all managed to open in over 2000 theaters to begin with. For such an 'indie' release, it sure had a lot of screens showing it.

[Bwelch]

The cast isn't bad. At least they have some experience to fall back on. To bad you can't say the same for the writers and directors.

I haven't seen this movie nor have I heard anything about it. Was it a limited release or opened wide?

Making up for the loss in DVD sales doesn't look remotely obtainable at all. lol

[Cow_k]

Take a look at the name of the link I posted Bwelch! =D

[Bwelch]

Take a look at the name of the link I posted Bwelch! =D

Read half first, ask questions later.

How do I read link?

[Zosi]

I like it when people go independent and succeed.

I do too, but I want indie films to succeed because they can compete on quality, not out of some kind of sympathy for indie filmmakers. From the sound of it, the studios were completely right in passing this one over, and the guy made some really bad business decisions.

[Haelian]

I watch a fair amount of TV and I actually remember seeing the commercial for this movie once and thinking it was a Shrek clone. But at the same time I've probably seen the commercials for other movies like Benjamin Button, Seven Pounds, The Spirit and The Day the Earth Stood Still up to 10 times each. Not that it had an impact on whether or not I personally would go see it, since it's a kids movie, but it certainly doesn't seem like they used advertising to their advantage.

It's pretty funny how tremendously this movie breaks the record by having just over 1/4th of the movie that previously had the worst box office opening.