DreamWorks Animation shares dropped 3.1% to $17.49 in the pre-market trading on Monday morning after Rise Of The Guardians’ $32.6M domestic box office. Janney Capital Markets’ Tony Wible has called the much-buzzed about title “one of the most disappointing releases in the company’s history.” If the pre-market stock price holds, then DreamWorks Animation would be down almost 24% from November 2 when it hit a 52-week high of $22.98.
Some analysts expected to see the holiday title bring in between $55 million to $58 million during its first weekend. However, now the projected domestic take on the film has dropped to $134-$146 million (down from earliest forecast for $225M) and $312 million internationally (down from $338 million). In Russia, the film’s biggest international market so far, Guardians generated $5.9 million in its opening weekend — lower than Puss in Boots’ $14.9M opening in Russia, How to Train Your Dragon’s $7.3M, and Megamind’s $6.9M.
Some believe that overseas audiences will have to spend at least $235 millions to keep the movie from ending up in the red — which is still possible if the film matches the performance of Disney’s Tangled, which opened the same weekend in 2010.
