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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Adam White

Playmobil: The Movie is biggest box office flop of all time

Playmobil: The Movie, a live-action/animated hybrid based on the popular toy brand, has become the biggest box office flop of all time.

The film opened on more than 2,337 screens in the US this weekend, only to gross $670,000 (£509,000) over its first three days of release.

This makes it the lowest-grossing film ever to open on such a large number of screens.

Overall, Playmobil had the third worst opening weekend for an original film debuting on more than 2,000 screens, with infamous flops Delgo and The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure earning less.

Delgo, featuring the voices of Freddie Prinze Jr and Jennifer Love Hewitt, opened in 2008 on 2,160 screens, only to gross $443,000 (£336,555). An average of two paying customers watched the film at every one of its screenings. It subsequently lost its studio a reported $40m (£30.4).

Delgo held the record for worst opening of all time until the 2012 release of The Oogieloves, which starred Toni Braxton and Cloris Leachman, and opened to $102,564 (£78,000) on 2,160 screens.

A 10th anniversary re-release of Saw opened to $650,051 (£493.9,000) on 2,063 screens in 2014 – which translated to an average of $315 (£239) per cinema.

Playmobil: The Movie, dubbed “a feature-length ad” that “exists because is has to exist” by The Independent, featured the voices of Anya Taylor-Joy, Daniel Radcliffe and Meghan Trainor.

It is the second high-profile animated flop for STX Films this year following the underperformance of UglyDolls.

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