Body of Lies (film) - Reception - Box Office

Box Office

Body of Lies earned $12.9 million on its first weekend in theatres in the United States, 40% less than expected. This placed it as the third highest earning film that weekend, behind Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which turned out to be No. 1 with a take of $17.5 million in its second week, and Sony/Screen Gems's Quarantine, which earned $14.2 million—about $2 million more than it cost to make. A Warners Brothers executive said he was disappointed with the film's opening and attributed it to its controversial storyline. Though Body of Lies fared better than previous pictures about the "war on terrorism" such as Rendition, In the Valley of Elah, and Lions for Lambs, which all performed well below studios' expectations. In a fourteen week theatrical run in the United States, the film earned $39 million.

Outside North America it opened reasonably well. In Australia it was the highest earning film in its opening weekend of the October 9–12, 2008 with $2,104,319, ahead of Pixar Animation's Wall-E, which fell to second place, while Beverly Hills Chihuahua held third. In the United Kingdom, the film's earnings were the second highest, behind Quantum of Solace during the November 21–23, its opening weekend. It earned £991,939 in 393 screens. Overall, while the film has grossed only $40 million at the American box office, it has grossed $115,097,286 worldwide. In the United States, contemporary war films have performed relatively poorly. Warner Bros had hoped the large budget and Scott's direction could better them, but the film performed relatively poorly compared to his others; analysts ascribed this to the film's Middle East setting and exploration of terrorism, Brandon Gray pointed out that people read these themes in the news media already, and there is a perception that Hollywood films are biased.