The repeated attempts by Disney to turn its many iconic theme park attractions into hit movies has existed longer than the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but the legendary swashbuckler is pretty much the only one that hasn’t died a horrible death at the box office, with Haunted Mansion‘s goose already cooked.
After opening below expectations last weekend and immediately establishing its credentials as the latest expensive misfire to curse the Mouse House’s release schedule, things have gotten even worse in its sophomore frame. In the face of renewed competition from Meg 2: The Trench and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Justin Simien’s reboot of the Eddie Murphy vehicle dropped almost 63 percent to bring in a miserly $9 million, bringing it to a running total of $42 million after 10 days in theaters.
At its current rate, Haunted Mansion will exit the multiplex with somewhere between $60 and $65 million from home shores, which is the worst run for any theme park movie since The Country Bears brought in less than $17 million back in the summer of 2002.
It’s also worse than the $75 million Murphy’s The Haunted Mansion hoovered up two decades ago, as well as notorious money-losing catastrophe Mission to Mars. Tomorrowland and Jungle Cruise did conspire to lose at least $150 million apiece, but Simien’s unfortunately-timed bomb isn’t even in the same conversation as those two, which is a major concern when the budgets aren’t exactly a million miles apart.
In short; we could be looking at one of Disney’s heftiest flops of all-time, for the second time this year…