When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysterious end of the equation, Deadline is repeating our Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament for 2019, using data culled by seasoned and trusted sources.

THE FILM

The Addams Family

MGM/United Artists Releasing/Bron Creative

While Paramount turned Charles Addams’ famed New Yorker cartoons into live-action features in the 1990s, the artist’s estate (overseen by Kevin Miserocchi) yearned for a film that leaned into the classic cartoon’s roots in animation. Producers Gail Berman and Andrew Mittman took it to MGM, which lined up top voice talent who were fans of the subject matter. Charlize Theron voiced Morticia, Oscar Isaac voiced her husband Gomez, and Chloe Grace Moretz provided the voice for dark daughter Wednesday. The film was ideally timed for Halloween season, opening October 11 and playing through the ghoulish holiday. A $150 million global licensing and promotional partner campaign with brands including Hershey’s chocolate and IHOP helped the film open to a solid $35M over the four-day Columbus Day holiday. The picture ranked behind Warner Bros’ The Joker, which was still riding high in its second weekend with $64.2M.

THE BOX SCORE

Here are the costs and revenues as our experts see them:

THE BOTTOM LINE

Co-director Conrad Vernon knows how to make animated features at a budget; his 2016 R-rated Seth Rogen-produced comedy Sausage Party yielded $140.7M at the worldwide box office and $47M in profit off a $19M production cost. Addams Family made more, $203M globally off a $40M production cost (co-financed by Bron Creative, which covered a third) before a $72M global P&A. Universal handled overseas distribution. Participations on an animated movie are traditionally lower than on a live-action feature, and the bulk of the estimated $7M seen here went to Theron. Days after the movie’s solid domestic opening, MGM quickly greenlit The Addams Family 2 and set a release date of October 22, 2021.