«Poseidon» takes on water

Revenues from the premiere weekend of the disaster movie «Poseidon» are significantly lower than expected.

«Poseidon», the latest large-scale Hollywood movie, premiered last weekend to great pomp and circumstance in the United States. After the disappointing performance of the third installment of «Mission: Impossible» the week before, it seems to be the turn of the remake of 1972's «The Poseidon Adventure» to go under. Although the Tom Cruise will most likely do better on the whole than its first weekend (international box office & DVD sales) the same cannot be said for Wolfgang Petersen's latest flick: with a price tag of $160 million plus the cost of publicity, «Poseidon» took in a meagre $20 million last weekend – a sign it is surely not going to break even. This may even place it in the running with other financial fiascos of the past ten years, such as «The Postman», «Town and Country», «Alamo», «Battlefield Earth» and «Gigli». «Poseidon» will open in French-speaking Switzerland in June 14, and one month later in German-speaking Switzerland.