The Peter Pan origins tale, Pan, reportedly had a budget of just over $150 million and is looking like it will be a massive flop at the domestic box office.
Early reviews of Pan have been mixed at best, but RottenTomatoes shows an even more grim tale with the film currently holding a 36% score. Warner Bros. spent a whopping $150 million on the film’s production budget alone, not counting its promotional budget ($80-100 million), and it hits theaters in the U.S. this weekend.
Check out a few of the negative reviews of Pan, which note that the film feels like it’s the beginning of a trilogy, even though they doubt it’ll even receive a sequel.
Tony Hicks says, “The end suggests there are plans for more chapters to the story. If so, someone needs to reassess the formula. This wasn’t a movie that needed making.”
Slant Magazine’s Eric Henderson says, “Joe Wright’s film could fuel an entire series of incredulous episodes of the How Did This Get Made? podcast.”
While there are a few positive reviews, most of them focus on the film’s visuals, with Pan’s story leaving something to be desired. It’s interesting that with all of this acting talent, we aren’t hearing about solid performances.
In recent trailers we’ve seen the incredibly talented Rooney Mara having a sizeable role as Tiger Lily, who fights Blackbeard at one point during the trailer. It seems she’ll be leading Peter through this breathtaking world until he gets close to Garrett Hedlund’s Hook.
There’s been a few nods to the future of the story we know, with Mara telling Hedlund that he should be mindful of having his hand in the water, because of crocodiles. The film also features Amanda Seyfried as a young Mary, with Peter Pan being played by Levi Z Miller.
It’s hard to imagine the cast is at fault here, as Pan is loaded with stars. Live-action fairy tales have been doing quite well for Disney lately, but it seems Warner Bros. hasn’t been able to grab the same kind of box office magic.
It’s difficult to know just how poorly the film will do in theaters, but it’s never a good sign to hear that a film is going to do poorly before it even opens. It’s currently on track to take in just $21 million on Columbus Day weekend across 3,500 locations around America.
It may get a boost when it’s released outside the states, but it’s not looking promising right now. We hope it’s salvaged somehow, as it’s never good to see such a talented cast completely go to waste with a poor outing at the theater. The film would need to bring in over $400 million worldwide to be considered a success with its promotional budget included.
Pan was written by writer/actor Jason Fuchs, who is also working on DC’s Wonder Woman. The movie hits theaters October 9.