‘Mortal Engines’ Flops In Friday Night Box Office

Universal Pictures and Peter Jackson weren’t able to deliver a hit with Mortal Engines, which debuted in theaters this weekend. The film is currently reporting a Friday estimate of only $2.8 million according to Box Office Mojo. That’s a very underwhelming opening number for one of the most hyped films of the year. With a $100 million budget, Mortal Engines is going to have a tough time covering its losses.

The film finished at No. 3 on Friday night, falling behind Clint Eastwood’s The Mule and Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The animated Spider-Man flick earned over $12.6 million on Friday, a success that surprised many. The Mule also brought in a respectable $5.8 million for a film which was under-advertised.

Mortal Engines’ numbers don’t come as much of a shock, however, since it didn’t sit too well with the critics that saw it. The movie is currently holding a 27 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is dismal to say the least. Some critics praised the CGI graphics which make up most of the film, but others seemed to think they fell flat.

“It adds up to a giant slog, a movie that, despite its ambitious look, doesn’t manage to offer us anything new. In the Screen Age, we’d refer to it as an epic fail,” Adam Graham of Detroit News wrote.

“It just was so boring, and dull, and it turned one of my favorite actors into a one-note blah,” another critic added.

The film is receiving an audience score of 60 percent on the plus side, but the problem seems to be getting an audience to the theater to view it.

“This is a headache-inducing spectacle that raises more questions than it answers, and does little to inspire viewers to go find the answers themselves,” Katie Rife of AV Club added.

Projections for Mortal Engines weren’t so great either. Box Office Pro is estimating the film will only make $8 million for the entire weekend, falling embarrassingly behind Into the Spider-Verse and The Mule. The website originally projected the film to earn $42.5 million domestically in its entire run, but that was when they were also projecting a $12 million opening.

Mortal Engines is in theaters everywhere. The film stars Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Hugo Weaving, Jihae, and Stephen Lang. The movie takes place several hundred years in the future where the city of London is on wheels and destroying and conquering everything in its path. It becomes a young woman’s quest to stop London from all of its destruction.