The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare has taken a huge drop at the box office in its second weekend. The new Guy Ritchie movie, which stars Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Henry Golding, and Cary Elwes, has a reported budget of $60 million and opened with $8.9 million at the domestic box office. However, the movie is already being considered a financial success at Lionsgate because its only theatrical release is in North America, with the international release going directly to streaming, a factor alters the overall benchmark for its box office success considerably.
Per Deadline, the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare release has already fallen out of the Top 5 at the domestic box office in its second weekend, landing at No. 6 with a 3-day total of $3.86 million. It is not uncommon for movies to drop between 40% and 60% after their opening weekends, but this total marks a staggering 70% drop for the Henry Cavill movie. This drop has come despite a relatively quiet weekend where its biggest competition was the pair of new release dramas Challengers and Unsung Hero, neither of which were targeting the same demographic.
Generally, the rule of thumb for measuring a movie’s box office success is the fact that theaters keep half of ticket sales, so a movie’s break-even point is usually twice its production budget. This rule doesn’t factor in publicity costs, nor special release situations like the streaming setup which means that The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is not a box office bomb. However, this week 2 drop at the domestic market is still somewhat brutal. Below, see how this domestic drop compares to Henry Cavill’s most notable movies that did perform below expectations:
While Batman v Superman‘s notorious week 2 drop got close, Cavill’s new movie was still hit particularly hard in its second weekend. It was facing off against some strong competition including Civil War and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, though it also fell behind the lukewarm vampire horror-comedy movie Abigail, which opened on the same weekend. Positive Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare reviews that earned the movie a 71% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes do not seem to have helped the movie with audience retention.
The disappointing The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare holds will likely continue, though its week 3 drop seems unlikely to be proportionally quite so drastic. Its third weekend will see the premiere of the Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt action-comedy The Fall Guy, which is tracking well and will likely take a huge chunk out of the rival movie’s intended demographic. With other strong franchise titles including Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes coming later in May, it seems probable that the Cavill title will fall from the Top 10 completely before long.
Source: Deadline