Earlier this year, we went out on a limb and predicted Alice Through The Looking Glass had the potential to be both one of 2016's biggest flops or modest hits. It's a good thing there wasn't any money wagered on that bet, because one side of the equation looks to have lost out big time, as the Disney sequel is in pretty deep trouble after its first weekend in theaters.
The numbers were crunched by the good folks at Variety, who noticed that Alice Through The Looking Glass' $34.2 million domestic opening was a far cry away from Alice In Wonderland's $116.1 million debut on the domestic front. With its Tim Burton directed predecessor racking up a little over $1 billion in ticket sales when all was said and done, the James Bobin directed sequel looks like it'll struggle breaking even, much less matching the previous installment's grosses. To see how much trouble the film is truly in, we'll have to look a little deeper into the financial situation Alice Through The Looking Glass resides in.
While the marketing costs of Alice Through The Looking Glass aren't public knowledge, we do know that $170 million is the production cost alone for the new installment of the series inspired by Lewis Carroll's classic writings. For the sake of our purposes, we'll use the informal 1.5 multiplier to estimate a break even figure of $255 million. Now taking into account the international haul from this weekend, Alice and her friends sit at a total of $99.2 million brought in for the first weekend. With $155.8 million outstanding after this weekend's result, the assumption that the foreign market is the best chance to make a profit from this bad situation is ever stronger. But even then, the chances of recovery aren't certain, as this is the second Memorial Day in a row that Disney's had a weak opening.
The saddest part about Alice Through The Looking Glass' Memorial Day weekend is that it seems like a repeat of last year's dismal performance of Tomorrowland. With $33 million making up its first weekend domestically, the film only made $93 million in its total domestic run. The international contingent brought only $115 million, which is only marginally better than its home court result, and certainly not enough to save that film's equally hefty price tag. So while the international market is the last, best hope for Alice Through The Looking Glass making any money, it'll need a huge rally in order to save the day.
Alice Through The Looking Glass is in theaters now, just in case you'd meant to see the film this weekend, but forgot.
