"Marvel is running out of cash" says David Poland

[FaT_tONle]

That $242 million was for the movie's world wide gross, which matches up closely (off by a few million) from Box Office Mojo.

I meant the percentage that went to the actual theatres.

 

[ClarkLuther55]

I was going to say that maybe that article got $129.8 million by assuming that theaters took 50% of Gone in 60 Second's gross, because 50% was a common assumption around these forums for a while. And while it's close to 50% of $242 million (which is really $121 million), it's still off and way too specific a figure for me to believe it was derived from such a simple assumption. I don't know what to believe here.

I did do some calculations though, and if we assume that the theaters actually only took in 20% of the gross (per topdog1's article), the movie's theatrical run would have still left Disney in the red by a few million. This was a successful move that made about two and a half times its production budget in world wide box office. So either way, I guess the article's point still stands; theatrical runs at best a good start for the studio or a way to gauge initial interest in the film. They're effectively just commercials for the DVD release which is where the real money is made.

TIH not only had a much larger production budget, but only made about 1.75 its times budget in theaters. It would have had to make up a lot more from DVDs and other merchandising.