Will Smith’s latest movie After Earth significantly underperformed during its opening weekend at the US box office.
The science fiction drama, directed by M Night Shyamalan and also starring Will’s son Jaden Smith, achieved sales of $26.5 million – well below the $40m predicted by studio Sony.
It landed in third place at the weekend box office, beaten by Now You See Me and Fast & Furious 6, which remains at number one.
After Earth has been met with largely negative reviews, earning a 13% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Rival studios claimed that After Earth is performing “2.5 times worse than Jaden Smith’s Karate Kid reboot and half of Oblivion‘s opening”.
Will apparently pushed to get Shyamalan on board as director, producing the movie with a budget of around $130 million.
Deadline reports that the studio was concerned with the resulting product and worked “really hard” to fix it in post-production.
“You keep hoping people are going to be as good as their best work,” an insider said. “Sometimes some collaborations bring forth amazing results. And some are not meant to be.”
After Earth opens in the UK on June 7.
Current US weekend box office takings:
1. Fast & Furious 6 – $34m
2. Now You See Me – $27.5m
3. After Earth – $26.5m
4. Epic – $16.0m
5. Star Trek Into Darkness – $15.2m
6. The Hangover Part III – $15.0m
7. Iron Man 3 – $7.8m
8. The Great Gatsby – $5.8m
9. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deew – $1.3m
10. Mud – $1.2m
This news item can be discussed here: NTSC User’s Message Board