The Box Office Thread

For someone who isn’t used to failure and admittedly is a sore loser, Thomas Tull is so far having a nightmare year at the box office. His company, Legendary Entertainment, was forced to take a $90 million writedown on Michael Mann’s $70 million cyber thriller “Blackhat,” which has earned just $14.5 million worldwide since its release last month. And after anticipating that Legendary’s upcoming release “Seventh Son” was headed for potential disaster, Tull took an early $85 million writedown — in 2013 — on the long-troubled movie, which debuts nationwide on Friday.

“Seventh Son,” a fantasy action film that cost $95 million to produce and tens of millions more to market, is tracking to open between $7 million and $10 million this weekend. Overseas, the movie, which stars Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes and Julianne Moore, has already earned $82 million, including $25 million in China, and another $15 million in Russia.

It’s no secret that Legendary has struggled with “Seventh Son” for years. The film, which started production under the direction of Sergei Bodrov in March 2012, has had four different release dates, beginning with Feb. 15, 2013. It landed on two other dates after that — Oct. 18, 2013, and Jan. 17, 2014 — the first due to post-production delays after visual effects facility Rhythm & Hues declared bankruptcy, and the second when the picture became orphaned after Legendary split with longtime studio partner Warner Bros.

All eyes have been on Legendary since Tull moved the company off the Warner Bros. lot in 2013 and struck a new distribution deal at Universal, financing tentpoles like “Jurassic World” and hits like “Unbroken” and “Dracula Untold.” It’s also on the upcoming N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton.” Legendary’s first film under the Universal partnership was the low-budget thriller “As Above So Below,” a $5 million feature with no notable names that scared up $40 million worldwide.

Whereas Legendary covered half the budget of Warner’s films, it does not have the same arrangement with Universal, which lowers its eventual returns. For example, Legendary is said to have funded around 20% of “Jurassic World,” which stomps into theaters June 12.

Universal’s deal with Legendary is also unique in that the studio doesn’t cover marketing costs for its partner’s films; Legendary shoulders those on its own, with Universal merely collecting a distribution fee. In the case of “Blackhat” and “Seventh Son,” the arrangement meant Universal didn’t take the hit; the studio has essentially protected itself from Legendary’s creative choices.

Tull, who had a lot of success at Warner, having backed the “Batman” and “Superman” franchises, “The Hangover” comedies and fanboy fare like “300” and the rebooted “Godzilla,” has a lot of stake when a film tanks, and loses sleep when they do, according to those close to him. He’s the company’s largest shareholder, so failures hit hard.