Sharknado may have been a pretty bit hit on the big screen, but apparently people aren’t willing to pay good money to see a low-budget B-movie in theaters.
In case you’ve been living in a world without the internet for the past month or so, the cheesy little shark movie featuring Tara Reid and Ian Ziering unexpectedly became a sensation on social media. Everyone from celebrities to bad movie aficionados tweeted about the flick during its premiere.
Since thousands of people appeared to be talking about the flick in one capacity or another, SyFy cooked up the brilliant plan to release Sharknado into theaters . Unfortunately, it turns out it’s kind of hard to get people to cough up money for something they can see for free on cable.
The cable network teamed up with the folks at NCM Fathom Events to drop the flick into over 200 Regal theaters on Friday. Some midnight screenings were said to have sold out.
Although the partners haven’t released an official numbers as of this writing, it’s being reported that Sharknado’s box office take probably won’t rise too much higher than $200,000. Chances are it cost the companies a lot more than that to get the flick into theaters.
However, the world of bad motion pictures isn’t just filled with terrible news. SyFy reports that the third airing of the cult favorite drew in nearly 2.1 million viewers. The Sharknado debut only managed to score around 1.4 million, though it jumped to 1.9 the second time around.
Despite the lack of success at the box office, SyFy is still moving forward with a Sharknado sequel . The film, which will take the action to New York City, should arrive next summer. Although Ian Ziering is on-board, Tara Reid has yet to sign on for the project.
Numbers from the midnight screening should be available later this week.
Are you surprised by Sharknado’s lack of box office success?
[Image via SyFy / The Asylum]
