8th Place "War Zone" is Punished at the Box Office

The first three days have been a struggle for Punisher: War Zone, only making $4 million, 8th place among the recent releases and far behind the first flick starring Thomas Jane.

This critique by Box Office Mojo...

"Punisher" Among Post-Thanksgiving Turkeys

The weekend's most prominent new release, Punisher: War Zone, had a pitiful start, grossing an estimated $4 million on around 2,700 screens at 2,508 theaters. It was the smallest opening ever for a Marvel Comics adaptation by far, even lower than Howard the Duck, and was a quarter of the previous Punisher movie's opening in terms of attendance.

Punisher: War Zone tried to reboot the franchise after the disappointment of The Punisher in 2004, like The Incredible Hulk versus Hulk from 2003, but its marketing campaign was murky and made no attempt to entice those unfamiliar with the character. What's more, distributor Lionsgate released the similar Transporter 3 last week, stealing some of its thunder.

ComicBookMovie
12/8/2008
Box Office Mojo

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28 Comments

	This sucks. I still haven't had a chance to watch the film, but I'm sure it's pretty rad. I'm sure as hell I'd enjoy this over something like Fantastic Four. TeenIdol - 12/8/2008, 2:56 AM
	Im in Australia and to be honest I have seen no advertising for this film outside the Internet. Guess they shot themselves in the foot here. iNsaneMilesy - 12/8/2008, 3:09 AM
	extremely bad marketing presence for this one. I'm positive though, that the next 2 weeks will triple, possibly quadruple the income of the opening week. They just didn't get the seeds planted in the media as they did with ALL previous Marvel films. On another note, I JUST finished watching Iron Man. That movie kick ASS! Back to topic. Again, this wall all a sense of extremely bad marketing, they thought they could pull it off through word of mouth for this one, but with so much bad press surrounding it; from Lexi being nixed, to a PG-13 rating rumor and vast OTHER debacles. It just didn't get off the ground as it should have. 4 Mil is a TERRIBLE opening weekend pull. That could potentially kill a 4th installment of this character for the big screen. HOWEVER, I have to say again, this is going to do MUCH better the 2nd and 3rd weekends, it won't necessarily recover, but it will do much better as it goes along. IonParallax - 12/8/2008, 5:21 AM
	ion i feel you may or may not be right. but the ONLY thing i can see that will save it is word of mouth most people probabaly dont know how violent it is. and there is a mess of people that will love it. UNLESS oversees it explodes. because the 4 million is all domestic not Foreign. grif - 12/8/2008, 5:57 AM
	I GARAUNTEE THAT THE DVD SALES AND RENTALS WILL BE THROUGH THE ROOF..BUT I STILL WANNA SEE JASON STATHAM PLAY THE PUNISHER..PUNISHER VS KINGPIN. GUNSMITH - 12/8/2008, 6:04 AM
	Unless it ends up selling very well on DVD we'll never see another Punisher movie. I also hope this doesn't hurt McKidd's chances at Thor as being "that guy from HBO's Rome" might not look as impressive after this $4 mill opening. DrFever - 12/8/2008, 7:06 AM
	I don't get why they are calling this a reboot of "The Punisher 2004" I thought the Thomas Jane movie was great. I made 33 million and I guess if they didn't give John Travolta 20 million to do the movie that they made some money. I didn't see the need for an actor change personally. I really had no intention of going to see this movie but maybe I'll go if I don't have anything better to do this weekend.. ScorpioEagle1 - 12/8/2008, 8:29 AM
	I honestly did not expect it to be this low, this was suprising for me. Im wondering if the R rating on it had anything to do with it. I guess its one of those thing you really can't predict cause there are a handful of factors working against the movie. HR - 12/8/2008, 8:35 AM
	Christmas time is definitely NOT the best time of the year to release this type of movie. Staying long enough into January for showings (which will be tough to accomplish) is their only hope. Inohaku - 12/8/2008, 9:15 AM
	Hate to say "i told you so" cause i would've loved to be wrong on this but... of all the Marvel characters to put on the big screen, Punisher is not a "non-fan" favorite. They should've concentrated on something else. This movie should be an indication NOT to make the Jonah Hex movie. Punisher is not going up into the box office top three anytime in the near future. It's just sad to see so many people "connect" with Rambo but not with Frank. Shaman - 12/8/2008, 10:18 AM
	Shaman - I hate to disagree with you but 'Punisher' could have been a huge hit... if it were done REALISTICALLY. IF the subject was treated as a real three-dimensional character (instead of the stereotypical 'bubble-gum' comic book hero), this would have been termendous! Instead, Marvel (in it's INFINITE wisdom) decided to go with the hyperactive video game look and feel of Lexi 'Princess Kitana' Alexander's direction. Hey Marvel - 'Excelsior' this!!!! loganoneil - 12/8/2008, 11:06 AM
	I'm so tired of everyone saying The 2004 Punisher wasn't good I loved it I thought it was awesome and Thomas Jane was a great Punisher... hulksgirl87 - 12/8/2008, 12:55 PM
	This is great news, maybe the next Punisher movie will actually be good. JigJRod55 - 12/8/2008, 2:54 PM
	I did like the 1st Punisher, but John Travolta Characters could have been better. It was just missing that something. Spock - 12/8/2008, 4:22 PM
	I don't know how anyone could have expected this to have done well. The last one wasn't all that great... but this one looks EVEN WORSE. Just because it's more violent and the new actor they picked is more of a bad ass doesn't mean anything. The previews make this look like a straight to video remake. It looks like a desperate grab to fill a gap. In fact the first time I saw the preview I thought to myself, "wow.. are they rereleasing the 1980s version? What the hell?" They released it too late. They should have released before/around Halloween. It's starting to be holiday season. Good movies are actually starting to come out. The R rating probably hurts it more than it helps. Yeah its necessary to have an R rated Punisher... but if nobody's gonna see it, the R is gonna limit the audience even more. They need to just let the Punisher go. Wait 10 years and then do a version worth seeing. Just because you managed to eek out a decent summer remake of the Hulk, does NOT mean that you can redo every recent movie only a couple years after the original. I mean, imagine if they tried to REMAKE spiderman right now. Or the X-Men. What are people supposed to think. warpath15 - 12/8/2008, 4:33 PM
	like i have been telling everyone THOMAS JANE WAS THE PERFECT PUNISHER not da big of a shock dat this movie was not gonna get as much money as the 2004 Punisher if u decide to remake any of ur movies marvel redo some of the spiderman movies the punisher was good the way it was if you decide to make a sequel for the punisher please use thomas jane and stick with the old story Colossus8 - 12/8/2008, 6:51 PM
	Ouch, well I guess I won't have to worry about the theater being packed full of mouth-breathers. I can watch this in relative peace. That said, Punisher is cool but he is by no means a heavy hitter, I never expected it to do Spider-Man numbers but more close to Ghost Rider numbers. It's not even doing Elektra numbers, which is shocking and for its sake, I hope it does improve. I'm looking at Lionsgate's new management who is purposely fumbling all of his inherited projects, like a big bitch. Look what the jerk did to "Midnight Meat Train". The lack of advertisement was no doubt his doing. Vex - 12/8/2008, 7:51 PM
	when i went to the theater last sunday there was only 5 people total. it was sad. but the problem was indeed advertisement on this movie. when i mentioned at my job to my friends that a new punisher was coming out they were like "WHAT??? THERE'S A NEW MOVIE COMING OUT??? WHEN???" so i knew this was bad.... by the way i really liked the movie CMKOFAN - 12/8/2008, 10:01 PM
	I went on Saturday (Opening Weekend) and there were only 11 people in the theater. What sucks is the commercials that I did see for this movie (not many of them) all emphasized the gore. I honestly went into the movie thinking it was going to suck, but it was good, not great, but good. The gore is over done at times, but it's an improvement on the lack of blood in '04's Punisher (which I liked). Ray Stevenson fits the roll perfectly for a Garth Ennis style Punisher (only thing I really didn't like about Jane's Punisher was he was too young [modern Punisher is in his 60s]). The lines are cheesy at times, and Jiggsaw isn't a great villian; however, LBJ (Loony Bin Jim) was an excellent side villian, and if you get past the attempts at emotionally driven moments the overall plot is good. This Punisher, by far, feels the most true to the comic books, and I'd love to see another one with Stevenson involving Barracuda and/or the Slavers, but I guess we'll have to see if word of mouth can get some more people in the seats. If you like the Punisher MAX series this is a must see movie. NAPosey - 12/9/2008, 1:44 AM
	i thought this might kinda be related news. as we all know the dark knight just came out on dvd. i went to wallmart at 12:00am whenn they unload the new releases. and there was a line going out the door to one register where they had 2 pallets of dk dvds. it was all nearly gone already. i bought 2 1 for myself and 1 as a xmas gift but they will not have any left when that stores regular biz hours start. i have never seen anything like it. it is a shame the punsiher wont get as much attention. grif - 12/9/2008, 3:12 AM
	This movie was awesome, and the only reason that it failed at the box office was because of the timing of it's release. Like grif said, Dark knight came out on DVD, taking money from ticket sales, Transporter 3 came out (which also kicked ass), and so many other things, not to mention the recession. had this movie come out about a week or two earlier it would have killed (in a good way) at the box office. SGA - 12/9/2008, 3:30 AM
	There is nothing that would have made this movie more appealing to a non-fan audience. The 2004 punisher was perfect and still didn't do all that great at the box office. Don't get me wrong, it did okay but not enough to have stimulated a sequel. They did it anyway and said "we might as well make this one for the fans". And that's exactly what they got. The 5 or 11 people/per theater that actually whent there were the punisher fans of that region bringing along by force they're girlfriends which you couldn't get them to go watch the movie a second time even if you gave them a full scholarship! Now i didn't see war zone mind you but from what everyone is saying is that i would love it... if i'm a fan. This movie has nothing to offer the average regular movie goer that knows JACK about punisher. The fans here say that the plot is good but that's because most of you already understand Frank Castle. The 2004 movie had everything to offer and wasn't praised. Could have been because it was way too low bugeted. If Tom Jane's movie had the same buget as i dunno... any nick Cage movie, it would've looked great and would have made a lot more at the box office. As for Ray's, it was never meant to be. Shaman - 12/9/2008, 11:35 AM
	What??? Everybody agrees or something? No arguments... no sign of life??? What am i, castaway??? But my damn volleyball won't talk back to me!!! Shaman - 12/10/2008, 8:48 AM
	i saw the movie and it was awesome the special effects where crazy good! Comedian - 12/10/2008, 8:48 AM
	Lovely... Shaman - 12/10/2008, 9:16 AM
	wow, i am really surprised at all the negativity. honestly i have one word for the new punisher, redemption. punisher is a dark character. the reason for its failure at the box office in my opinion were the 2 previous disapointments. the other movies were so nancy girly that people were jaded by them. everyones other points also make great sense but come on people. lets just look back at the horror that was the spawn movie. studio greed forced a great dark comic in to a family friendly crap fest. this movie in my humble opinion was a breathe of fresh air in contrast to the last movie which i thought was quite wussy. sorry guys but when i order a steak, i don't expect a chicken nugget..... nonstopsand - 12/11/2008, 3:14 AM
	Funny how, when i say to everyone i know, that there's a new punisher movie, they all say "well i'm not gonna go see that vin diesel kiddy movie crap again!" They don't even know about Frank Castle!!! He is not a character that grabs the attention of a big enough audience. He's just a gun totin' vigilante. Spawn did way better at the box office than the punisher movies because there was more to offer than just "shoot em'up" action. There were cool visual special effects and an emotional story attached to the action. The fans hated the Spawn movie but the general audience didn't mind paying twice to see it where as they don't want to pay even "once" for the punisher. People in general DO want the wussy story that fuels the anger for the action, it gives it purpose. During Warzone, they would've had to tell each other "Why is he doing this again? Oh yeah, remember the previous one with John Travolta, he killed Frank's family? Yeah but isn't he dead already? Well yeah but he's continuing his punishment because of the corrupt justice system and the fact that he forever morns his family's death. Oh, there you go, see? He's breaking down at the sight of his family's grave. Oh i get it now, yeah..." And you know i'm right on this because the 2004 punisher movie did way better than this one. The ones that saw the movie connected a bit more to the character because they saw what was done to his family first hand and how it affected Frank. But there wasn't enough budget to make it a spectacular experience worth seeing twice. No matter how much publicity you give to punisher, the audience will pick Spawn or The Crow over punisher any day of the year because there is MORE to those characters than just a guy with an arsenal and a tear in his eye! Even i, am a fan of the punisher but i don't let that get in the way of logical understanding. I can bitch and say "why doesn't punisher get a decent box office movie?" but the truth is he got three decent movies. All of them were decent adaptations of him in their own way. What he CAN'T get no matter how hard they try, is decent box office numbers because there will never be enough people to go see his movies to actually do the character justice. Shaman - 12/11/2008, 7:11 AM
	really sad this movie did not do while money wise. i seen opening night and love the movie it was not perfect but it was good they was going the right way with this movie with some tweaks and a deep storyline i am sure part 3 would be good shit call me i make it i bet i make punisher movie just as good as any marvel movie. i think they should have punisher come after kingpin that be cool right dbzfan2009 - 1/20/2009, 6:10 PM

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