Bombing, and deservedly so

Dave McNary has a Variety article about 47 Ronin:

Universal Pictures has acknowledged that 47 Ronin is a loser, disclosing that it’s taken the ususual step of writing down some if its $175 million cost prior to the current quarter. The samurai tentpole, starring Keanu Reeves (top photo, at left), opened on Christmas Day and is projected to earn under twenty million dollars through Sunday: the worst debut for a $150 million-plus movie in 2013. The film finished sixth on Thursday with a meager $3.4 million.
Internationally, 47 Ronin has opened in fourteen territories for a total of ten million dollars through Wednesday. Though the film’s opening two weeks ago in Japan was dire, it finished first in its Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan openings.
Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp., issued a statement confirming the writedown, but did not disclose its size. “Universal Pictures regularly evaluates its film slate for potential adjustment,” the studio said. “In the case of 47 Ronin, we adjusted film costs in previous quarters and, as a result, our financial performance will not be negatively impacted this quarter by its theatrical performance.”
Universal saw solid performances this year from Fast and Furious 6 and Despicable Me 2. It’s finishing third in overall US box office with more than $1.4 billion in grosses, trailing Warner Bros. and Disney. Earlier this year, Disney took a writedown on The Lone Ranger after losing nearly two hundred million dollars on the Johnny Depp western.

Rico says that, in normal industries, heads would roll for losses like this... (And if it ends Keanu Reeves' career, so much the better.)