How Badly Did "The Birth Of A Nation" Actually Do At The Box Office?
Amid hype and scandal, the film debuted with $7.1 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Armie Hammer, Nate Parker, and Jayson Warner Smith in The Birth of a Nation.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
After enduring a sustained and emotional onslaught of hype and scandal over the past nine months, The Birth of a Nation finally opened in theaters, earning an estimated $7.1 million in 2,105 locations in the US and Canada.
It is, at best, a tepid debut for any wide release film, but it has to be especially disappointing for Fox Searchlight. The speciality division of 20th Century Fox purchased The Birth of a Nation at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival for a record-breaking $17.5 million, after the independently financed film premiered to widespread enthusiasm due to the power of its subject — the 1831 slave uprising led by Nat Turner — and the accomplishment of its director and star, Nate Parker.
A string of interviews Parker gave in August and September about a 1999 rape charge against him, however, has clearly tampered enthusiasm for his movie. And between its acquisition price and the marketing dollars Searchlight sunk into launching the film in wide release (as opposed to the slow platform release given to most Sundance films), The Birth of a Nation would have to make upwards of $50 million to begin to turn a profit.
That goal seems especially difficult to reach when considering the top-selling films out of Sundance earn far more humble box office returns — if they’re lucky.
Adam B. Vary / BuzzFeed News / Via stories on Sundance sales on indiewire.com and ew.com
Again and again, the most hyped movies out of Sundance have failed to reach their lofty financial expectations once they leave the safe confines of Park City, Utah. Yes, Little Miss Sunshine was an unqualified sensation, but far more often the festival turns out films like Hamlet 2, Happy, Texas, and Son of Rambow that can't even earn back their purchase price. The Birth of a Nation has already out-grossed all of those films, and yet it still has a long road to go before it can earn back Searchlight's $17.5 million.
The Birth of a Nation is not just a Sundance movie, of course. Understanding the impact of its box office debut requires measuring the film against several yardsticks.
from Design & Directed http://ift.tt/2e5nSCS
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