![]() War Zone plummeted 67.6% in its second frame to $1,383,898 and was pulled out of all theaters after its third week with only $8,050,977. Reviews were atrocious and Punisher: War Zone was dead on arrival with $4,271,451 - placing #8 for the weekend led by Four Christmases and it opened slightly below Transporter 3. The new date also put the film in direct competition with another Lionsgate release Transporter 3, which was released the weekend prior. Lionsgate originally slated Punisher: War Zone for a September 12 release, but clearly had no faith in the movie and dumped it over the usually slow post-Thanksgiving frame on December 5. Rumors also circulated that the picture would be trimmed to PG-13, which seems ridiculous, considering the amount of gore on display, but regardless, buzz was not very promising. Production was apparently quite unpleasant, with on set interference from executives and then reports that Alexander was removed during a period of post production and then reinstated at some point. The budget for Punisher: War Zone was a modest $22 million - that figure was confirmed by Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns at the December 2008 Global Media and Communications Conference, who also said that he expected the movie to lose only $4M or $5M for the studio. In November 2007, while the film was in production, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group acquired all international rights to the project and another Lionsgate sequel Crank 2.īetween Lionsgate’s financing partners and Sony’s unreported acquisition amount, the mini-major had mitigated most of their risk on the film. Lionsgate also landed financing from the German fund MHF Zweite Academy Film. Punisher: War Zone was one of the first projects under the new arrangement. In 2007 Lionsgate set up a four year financing deal with Société générale de financement du Quebec, which is the government investment branch of the Canadian province - in which SGF would cover 35% of the production costs for Lionsgate’s slate of films. Ray Stevenson was eventually cast as the lead and Lexi Alexander was tapped to helm the project, which she turned into an 80’s throwback of the trashiest kind (this a major guilty pleasure movie around here). The script was widely looked at as garbage and numerous directors turned down Punisher: War Zone. Lionsgate was initially moving forward with Thomas Jane back in the Frank Castle role, but executives began to impose screenplay changes that led to his departure. After the disastrous release of Punisher: War Zone, the rights reverted back to Marvel in 2010. That picture underperformed at the box office ($54.7M worldwide), but Lionsgate became bullish on developing a sequel after strong home video sales. ![]() Artisan was acquired by Lionsgate in late 2003, which handled the release for The Punisher and inherited the Marvel rights. ![]() In May 2000, Artisan Entertainment inked a major rights deal with Marvel to turn at least 15 comic book properties into modestly budgeted fare, but only The Punisher (2004) materialized. Cast: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Doug Hutchisonįinanced by: Lionsgate Société générale de financement du Quebec MHF Zweite Academy Film.Written By: Nick Santora, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway.
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