Sony Pictures Animation‘s The Smurfs 2 bombed in the U.S. and Canada where even the most wretched family fare can catch a break at the summer box office.
This 3D hybrid live-action/CG animated sequel couldn’t even make in its first five days ($27.5M) what the 2011 original grossed in its first three-day weekend ($35.6M).The domestic total fell way short of the $35M first projected by the studio.
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But even the foreign cume was blah: $52.5M from 43 territories was “not enough to make up for U.S. underperformance,” a Sony exec tells me. That’s a worldwide total of $80.3M, far less than the $100M which Sony projected this weekend.
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Worldwide, Russia and Latin America outperformed Smurfs 1 while shockingly Europe (where the Smurfs began) did not......
Sony is still counting on a big worldwide weekend to save this pic’s bottom-line. The negative cost for Smurfs 2 was $125M. Sony also lined up for the sequel one of the studio’s largest global promotion campaigns with $150M from 100 corporations, licensees, and retail partners. (Including McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, blueberries).
As expected Smurfs 2 opened Wednesday #1 atop the North American box office but with only a lame $5.2M and then a lifeless $18M three-day weekend. Its Rotten Tomatoes score was a poor 12% but the ‘A-’ CinemaScore from audiences didn’t help domestic word of mouth. I hear the Sony brass was concerned from the outset because their sequel was out-tracked by Disney’s Planes (which opens August 9th).
Source:
Deadline.com
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These 100 million+ budgeted films are really sinking one by one........ 
