Credit: The Hollywood Reporter
According to a study by the Kagan Research firm, The Da Vinci Code has outperformed this yea’s current box-office champ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest in terms of profitability this summer.
Sony Pictures’ The Da Vinci Code should generate nearly $1.2 billion in worldwide revenue, according to Kagan estimates. It cost $367 million to produce and market. Disney’s Pirates should generate more overall revenue, or about $1.8 billion by Kagan estimates, but cost an estimated $75 million, or 17%, more to produce and market than Da Vinci.
Jeff Blake, Sony’s chairman of worldwide marketing and distribution, said of Da Vinci‘s profitability, “It was a marketing group’s dream, coming out of the gate with so much interest in Dan Brown’s story.”
While $442 million in marketing and production expenses diluted Pirates‘ net earnings, Disney/Buena Vista Pictures had two more titles that ranked in Kagan’s top five most-profitable summer films list: Cars, at No. 3, and Step Up at No. 5.
Fox Searchlight’s Little Miss Sunshine came in at No 4 on the most-profitable list. Acquired in a bidding war at January’s Sundance Film Festival by the specialty division of 20th Century Fox for $10 million, Sunshine, by Kagan’s estimates cost $8 million to produce, 15 times less than Da Vinci, and 25 times less than Pirates.
The least-profitable films of the summer were New Line’s bottom-ranked Hoot, Sony Pictures’ Zoom in next to last and Fox’s My Super Ex-Girlfriend, as the third-least profitable film of the season.
