” Credit Philippe Antonello/Paramount PicturesOuch. And an article from late yesterday updates the chariot wreck: 'Ben-Hur' box office took an even worse turn Monday (Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY , KHOU).
LOS ANGELES — During new pressure on Viacom to turn around Paramount Pictures, the studio misfired again over the weekend: “Ben-Hur,” which cost Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about $100 million to make, not including marketing expenses, arrived to a disastrous $11.4 million in domestic ticket sales.
[...]
On Sunday, Paramount reported already-bleak estimates that had the remake of the 1959 classic opening at No. 5 with a paltry $11.35 million.It never looked like a particularly promising film, but I was expecting it to do better than that. Another Hollywood remake fail.
But revised official numbers found the saga actually made $11.2 million, knocking it out of the psychologically important top-five position.
Background here and links.