Moonfall's Box Office Haul Is The Real Disaster

Once upon a time, a film directed by disaster maestro Roland Emmerich about the Earth being threatened by the moon would have been a decent bet for a box office smash. Emmerich is the man behind such bygone blockbusters as "Universal Soldier," "Independence Day," and "The Day After Tomorrow," but the commercial reception to his latest picture "Moonfall" is, well, you saw the headline.

"Moonfall" is a throwback to the kind of sci-fi disaster movies that used to routinely clean up at the box office, but which now seem to have been replaced by superhero movies on the Hollywood spectacle market. That made it a reasonable gamble but a gamble nonetheless, and unfortunately for everybody rooting for its success, the actual numbers from its premiere over the weekend don't inspire much confidence. That's despite the involvement of Emmerich as well as big names like Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson in the cast.

A $10 million North American opening is very rarely good news these days, and with "Moonfall," it only gets worse when you consider the film's nearly $140 million budget (or more). The Hollywood Reporter's weekend box office roundup also reports that the film didn't do much better in international markets either, pulling in just $9.4 million in 45 markets outside of North America, meaning that the process of recouping domestic losses with international success isn't likely to happen here.

Box office data also shows that, in keeping with the film's throwback pleasures, the core audience of "Moonfall" is skewing older, with 50 percent of viewers 35 or older, as well as 60 percent male.

Another interesting data point from the weekend's box office haul is that "Jackass Forever," with its $23.5 million opening gross, reportedly cost just $10 million to make — making it almost a commercial mirror image to the disappointing performance of "Moonfall."