Speed Racer Actually Opened Third

Published by Jeff Leins on: May 13th, 2008

I know I already covered the weekend box office totals Sunday, but I wanted to quickly point out that the actual numbers were released and Speed Racer did even worse than originally estimated.

The accusations of falsely inflated numbers were true. Warner Bros was telling everyone it made $20.2 million, just a curiously shady amount larger than What Happens in Vegas… A little fuzzy math in order to seem like it wasn’t so terrible.

Turns out Speed Racer did even worse than that formulaic romantic comedy. It actually earned only $18.6 million and debuted in third place. Not exactly the kind of opening you want from one of your tentpole summer wide releases.

Maybe it’s because I hated the movie so much, but I can’t get enough of how poorly this movie performed.

It had all the ingredients for a colossal failure though. A big budget, $120 million, that has been rumored to be actually much larger. Massive corporate sponsorship. Directors that are known for science fiction and hardcore R-rated movies making a family film. An adaptation of a Saturday morning cartoon two decades old, which was an anime cartoon before that. Emile Hirsch as the major star? A two hour long kids movie!?

What were they thinking?