"Evan Almighty" could be the first big-budget bomb of the summer after opening to $32.1 million in U.S. and Canadian weekend ticket sales, based on Sunday's estimate from Universal Pictures.
The modern-day Noah's Ark tale, starring Steve Carell, cost more than $250 million to produce and market.
Universal had been counting on the PG-rated movie -- its most expensive production this year and one of the priciest Hollywood comedies ever -- to be its summer "tent pole." Now the studio and its financing partner, Relativity Media, are hoping it holds up well enough that they can come out unscathed. More broadly, the film's poor opening could temper any enthusiasm in Hollywood for making expensive, overtly Christian films.
At least one box-office analyst called the opening "a disaster of biblical proportions," but Universal kept faith.
"It's a really good launch to a film that's going to be talked about with friends and family," said Nikki Rocco, the studio's president of domestic distribution. She said 95% of ticket buyers surveyed rated the picture "excellent" or "very good," boding well for word of mouth.
Other family-oriented comedies in recent years, including "Elf" and "Night at the Museum," have opened in the $30-million range and gone on to become blockbusters, she noted. But they cost a lot less to make.
The first movie in the "Almighty" series, 2003's "Bruce Almighty," grossed $68 million in its opening weekend and went on to generate $243 million domestically and about the same amount abroad. But that film opened on Memorial Day weekend and had a different star in Jim Carrey and a cruder tone, with its PG-13 rating. "Evan Almighty" is more of a spinoff than a standard sequel.
Though it fell far shy of analysts' predictions, "Evan Almighty" was No. 1 at the weekend box office, ahead of the surprisingly strong horror film "1408" and the holdover sequel "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," which both grossed about $20 million.
This summer's biggest hits, "Spider-Man 3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," have been embraced by foreign audiences, but it remains to be seen how "Evan Almighty" will be received abroad. It opened to $1.7 million in Russia and Ukraine as the studio begins a gradual roll-out.
Universal had to sell "Evan" to two disparate audiences that normally do not watch the same movies: Christians who prefer family-friendly films, and fans of raunchy comedies such as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," Carell's breakout hit.
