'Haunted Mansion' Global Box Office Debut Underwhelms Against Barbenheimer
The Big Picture Haunted Mansion had a lackluster box office debut with only $33 million, falling short of expectations given its large budget.
Compared to other recent Disney live-action films like Jungle Cruise and The Little Mermaid, Haunted Mansion is off to an underwhelming start.
The film follows Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) as she moves into a haunted mansion and enlists the help of a priest, a psychic, and a physicist to free herself and her son from the ghostly curse.
Haunted Mansion came up with a spooky debut at the worldwide box office, earning $33 million from theaters spread around the entire mortal realm. The theme park attraction adaptation was ready to take audiences into the unknown, showing them a dimension full of ghosts trapped within an ancient house in the middle of Louisiana. Unfortunately, the film had a reported budget of $150 million, making its debut less than ideal for a production of its size.
When compared to other recent films released by Disney's live-action department, Haunted Mansion's performance is evidently lower than what was expected by the studio. Just a couple of years ago, Jungle Cruise earned $90 million from its theatrical box office debut and what it gained from the Disney+ Premier Access release model the company used for certain releases during the pandemic. In addition to that, The Little Mermaid saw a global debut of $163 million earlier this summer, only for its productive legs to turn it into one of the most successful films of the season.
In Justin Simien's adaptation of the popular Disneyland attraction, Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) is looking for a fresh start alongside her son. After she found a cheap mansion in Louisiana, she quickly tries to turn it into her family's new home. But she would soon discover that the place is actually haunted, with hundreds of restless souls roaming the hallways of the residence at night. Realizing that she's going to need all the help she can get to free herself and her son from the curse, she starts looking for experts that could come to her rescue during her most desperate hour.
Image by Annamaria Ward
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Assembling the Happy Haunts
The first person Gabbie contacts is a priest played by Owen Wilson. Father Kent tries to lift everyone's spirits with his charisma, while they all try to protect each other from the ghouls and specters who have lived in the mansion for centuries. The team will also include Harriet (Tiffany Haddish), a psychic who will use her ability to speak with the dead in order to learn more about the tragedy that led to the house becoming a safe haven for ghosts from across history. But the most important addition to the group has to be Ben (LaKeith Stanfield), a physicist who specializes in seeing that which lies beyond what the eye can perceive.
You can check out our interview with Wilson below:
Source: Collider
