REFRESH Fri July 16th: ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ brings in $3.2 million for Thursday. That’s only $7 million going into the 3-day weekend. With ‘Inception’ opening Friday Apprentice looks to be in some serious trouble.
Thu July 15th: Looks like ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ made only $3.8 million on Wednesday, it’s opening day. That makes a 5-day estimate of around $30 million or under. This will be the second Jerry Bruckheimer film this year to underperform, the first being ‘Prince of Persia’. With a reported production budget of around $150 million for Apprentice and $200 million for Prince (which has petered out with only $89 million domestic) this has been a bad year for the prolific producer.
Of course this is by no means the end of his career, and more than likely most will forget about these failures in years to come. Bruckheimer is currently involved in producing many more films and television series, and some low grossers are bound to happen. It has been a rough summer when it comes to new material, especially in the action arena. But as it works for studios, putting out a large net of films ensures that failures will be propped up by successes. And Bruckheimer’s net is by no means small.