Still sore from the $100 million or so bath they’re likely to take on “Mortal Engines” which opened last week, Universal Pictures got more bad news at the Christmas box office as Robert Zemeckis’ “Welcome to Marwen” opened to an utterly dismal $2.5 million over the past three days.

That ties with the comedy “Action Point” as the year’s worst studio opening and now it seems the Steve Carell-led film is expected to lose the studio at least $50 million, if not more, according to box office analysts.

In the film, Carell plays photographer Mark Hogancamp who creates a town built out of miniatures in his backyard as a way to cope with PTSD following a violent attack. Leslie Mann, Janelle Monae, Merritt Wever, and Diane Kruger co-starred in the $40 million budgeted film which is Zemeckis’ third consecutive bomb following “The Walk” and “Allied” which both fizzled at the box-office.

If that weren’t bad enough, “Mortal Engines” plunged even further than expected with the movie falling 77% in its second weekend. The immediate failures of both films stand in stark contrast to the rest of the studio’s slate which has been stellar for 2018 and included hits like “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” “The Grinch” and in smaller circles “Green Book”.

Source: IndieWire