Weekend Box Office: Matt Damon's 'The Great Wall' Crumbles With $21M U.S. Debut

Hollywood Reporter ^ | 2/17/2017 | Pamela McClintock

[EdnaMode]

'A Cure for Wellness' is also bombing over the long Presidents Day weekend, leaving 'The Lego Batman Movie' and 'Fifty Shades Darker' firmly in charge

Acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou's The Great Wall, starring Matt Damon, bombed in its U.S. debut over the long Presidents Day weekend with an estimated $21 million from 3,325 theaters, including a three-day tally of $18.1 million.

That's a poor start considering the movie's $150 million production budget. Revised estimates for the holiday weekend will be released Monday morning, while final numbers won't be ready until Tuesday. In any case, the first Presidents Day weekend of Donald Trump's tenure in the White House turned out to be a something of a bust at the box office.

None of the new offerings — Great Wall, New Line's comedy Fist Fight and New Regency/Fox's psychological thriller A Cure for Wellness — were be able to topple holdovers The Lego Batman Movie and Fifty Shades Darker.

[EdnaMode]

And yet... another movie starring an A-lister has flopped domestically. Even Lego Batman has underperformed compared to original projections. This is looking like a very poor year at the box office (with a few exceptions of course).

[Bodleian_Girl]

If they ran their mouth and hated the Republic during the election, I can’t spend my money on them.

Ever.

[trisham]

The trailer was awful.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

The Film Actors Guild is most disappointed with this news.

[EdnaMode]

Yeah I haven’t been to the movie theaters since 2015.

[dfwgator]

I know I am boycotting everything Hollywood now.

[EdnaMode]

Hopefully this continues and some of the blockbuster films flop.

[EdnaMode]

Yeah, I’ve been mostly watching old TV shows and DVDs.

[bray]

Trashing Trump at the Academies will bring their box office back. Time to stop Hollywierd subsidies.

[AFreeBird]

Damn dirty Libtards, getting what’s coming to them; I got no problem with that.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

Batman lego is not underperforming.

[dfwgator]

[discostu]

$244 million in foreign box office. I think they’ll be fine. The target market for that movie was never America, it’s a mostly Chinese cast with a Chinese director and based on Chinese mythology. Any American dollars are gravy.

[Bodleian_Girl]

Love your screen name though!

[sam_whiskey]

I wouldn’t celebrate too much about the failure of these three movies. I don’t think they were expected to do well. I think that Matt Damon one was made to appeal primarily to audiences overseas.

[Red in Blue PA]

Saw John Wick 2 this weekend.

Keanu Reeves is one of the only Hollywood stars I will watch. Watch his shooting videos on Youtube. He trains with Taran Butler, one of the best shooters in the sport.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Great Wall has grossed almost $263,000,000 worldwide. From what I’ve seen from trailers it looks too ridiculous for U.S. audiences. Then again, the Godzilla movie always do well here.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=greatwall.htm

[southernindymom]

Same here

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

LOL!

[Texas Eagle]

I drove around aimlessly for hours as I tried to decide whether or not the carbon footprint I knew I would leave behind by going to and from the movie would allow my conscience to enjoy the movie.

I decided not to.