Ben-Hur, the big-budget cinematic retelling of the novel by Lew Wallace, has become the latest blockbuster to have its wheels fall off at the box office this summer. The film, which was co-produced by Paramount and MGM, cost more than $100 million to make but recouped just $11.4 million during its opening weekend, across 3,804 theaters.
Whether Ben-Hur’s failure is chalked up to remake-and-sequel fatigue, poor reviews, or lack of star power, the film is an undeniable disappointment in a summer that has already been full of box-office failures, including Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of The BFG and Paul Feig’s all-female reboot of Ghostbusters. And though Ben-Hur could conceivably still take in enough overseas to mitigate the damage, its poor opening is still a blow to Paramount. Though the studio put up just 20 percent of the financing (MGM put up the other 80 percent), Paramount has produced a string of disappointments recently, with the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and Zoolander 2 all failing to attract audiences in the numbers that the studio wanted.
For comparison, Suicide Squad led the box office once again this weekend and brought in around $20.7 million, bringing the film to a total of $262.3 million.
