Warner Bros messed up
I bet Warner Bros wishes now it hadn't passed on Paddington but had passed on Jupiter Ascending.
shareThe US$ 200 million Jupiter Ascending will fail to match Paddington's gross in the US And it's world wide tally!
Serves them right, Paddington would have been an even bigger hit if it had WB backing it with a lavish marketing campaign.
“My whole career is always a roller-coaster", Nicole Kidman- Paddington Premiere 2014
Jupiter Ascending:
Production Budget = $176 million;
Current Domestic Takings = $43.6 million;
Current Worldwide Takings = $124.7 million
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=jupiterascending.htm
Paddington:
Production Budget = $55 million;
Current Domestic Takings = $70.5 million;
Current Worldwide Takings = $230.9 million
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=paddington.htm
It's also worth noting that the (out of date) UK gross for Paddington is currently $56.9 million: i.e. Paddington has taken more money in the UK than Jupiter Ascending has in the US...
It's interesting to recall that, at the time, the handling of Paddington's US release was considered within the industry to be quite astute, as it avoided going up against some big family movies over the holiday period and therefore had a fairly clear run afterwards. With hindsight, however, it rather looks like a series of missed opportunities...
Paddington's done even better than that - Mojo's stopped tracking a lot of the foreign territories now, but StudioCanal issued a recent press release:
Paul King's blockbuster Paddington has become StudioCanal's biggest theatrical release. During the weekend, Paddington surpassed the previous record-holder, Non-Stop, which grossed $236m for the studio.
Thus far Paddington has earned $241m for StudioCanal, but the film is yet to open in major markets such as China and Japan.
Yes, Warners definitely dropped the ball - but against that, would a Warners version of Paddington have been as good or made for as reasonable a budget? Warners did shelve the same producer's Gravity for a year to try to persuade him and the director to add flashbacks to a romantic subplot with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock on Earth to 'widen the film's appeal,' and with Paddington he'd have had a weaker hand to play against studio management.
In this case StudioCanal, with its focus on films that appeal primarily to non-US audiences, was the perfect home to take care of this particular bear.
"Security - release the badgers." share