Movies With Butter

We knew the reviews were tepid for Jack the Giant Slayer, just as we knew it had already fallen out of the top 10 at the box office after only five weeks of release -- but now, thanks to the folks at the Hollywood Reporter, we're starting to get an idea of just how poorly it's performing for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures.

THR's sources indicate that the studios are "facing a substantial financial hit" on Slayer, which could live up to its name by saddling its backers with a $140 million loss. As their report puts it, "That would put the film midway between Universal's 2012 flop Battleship and Disney's John Carter in terms of financial damage."

That's pretty miserable company for any movie -- and although a fair number of Jack's reviews defended director Bryan Singer's lighthearted revisionist take on the timeless fable about a simple farmboy, a handful of magic beans, and a pissed-off giant, audiences failed to turn out.

Jack's soft domestic grosses mirror the middling commercial fates of similarly themed fairytale adaptations such as Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters; the key difference here is that in Jack's case, non-U.S. filmgoers are also turning their backs on the picture, which looks to leave the movie topping out around $200 million -- enough to just about cover the movie's massive production budget, but not to earn back the studio's heavy marketing investment.

All in all, this should prove a cautionary fable of a different sort for studios who want to jump on the latest manufactured Hollywood bandwagon...but it probably won't.

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