Internationally, Battleship was a moderate success, making a total of $235 million. However, it was a very different story in North America where the film made only a paltry $63 million at the box office. The reason for this failure? According to director Peter Berg, Earth's Mightiest Heroes are to blame. He might just be on to something there, although he fails to mention Battleship's 33% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and the awful word of mouth which surrounded the film when it was released. In the following interview with MTV News, Berg also shares his thoughts on the chances of a sequel...something it seems fair to say that no one is eagerly anticipating!
"The movie kicked butt internationally, but we kind of ran into a wall when 'Avengers' refused to go away. 'The Avengers' outperformed everything. It was impossible for 'Battleship' to get any oxygen. I would have loved to have come out three weeks before 'The Avengers' domestically, like we did internationally."
"We did OK, but in hindsight — which my grandmother used to say is worth about a bucket of spit — we would have [released the movie] ahead of 'The Avengers,' not realizing it would have become, I think, the second biggest film in history behind 'Avatar.' "
"What I need everyone to do is go see 'Battleship' now that they've seen 'Avengers' five times. If they do that, we can definitely make a sequel. 'Battleship' is a film that I would definitely like to do a sequel to. I loved making that film. I had a great time with it."