Lions For Lambs - Box Office Results

Box Office Results

The film took in USD$6.7 million in its opening weekend and debuted at the number four spot. This was one of Cruise's worst wide opener box office takes since The Color of Money, and Cathering Elsworth of The Daily Telegraph wrote that this result "puts it on course to be Cruise's lowest-grossing movie of all time." The film also opened poorly in Europe, with Variety reporting: "Savage reviews dealt the talky political drama a big blow." In the United Kingdom, Lions for Lambs took in $1.4 million and opened in sixth place. The film debuted at the number six spot in Germany, and number five in Brazil. Overall, the film pulled in a total of $10.3 million in markets in its opening weekend outside the United States, and Reuters noted "Tom Cruise's 'Lambs' got slaughtered at the worldwide box office." By January 14, 2008, the film's domestic returns were just under $15 million.

MSNBC reported that Cruise was concerned about the opening weekend results, and quoted a source: "Tom wanted to really hit a home run with his first United Artists movie. It was more about how the industry was going to view him than the movie going public that Tom was worried about." In response to the opening weekend results, a representative at United Artists stated: "We performed right at the pre-weekend predictions and are glad to have done that. Given the modest production and marketing budgets we do not need to be a blockbuster hit. Everyone at United Artists are very proud of the film and could not have had a more perfect filmmaker to have made our first film."

International experts said that the film did not attract its core audience, and that the box office results were due to a failure of the film to cross over to the general public. On November 28, 2007, The Wall Street Journal reported that "Lions for Lambs has performed so poorly that it may not make back its $35 million investment." On December 3, 2007, the New York Post reported that the film was "assessed to blow as much as $25 mil," and a report in Variety made the same assessment. Multiple sources have referred to the film as a "Box office bomb", including the San Francisco Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, Orlando Sentinel, the New York Post, and New York Magazine. New York Magazine called the film "a critical flop and a box-office bomb," and a report by NewsMax Media characterized it among "miserable box-office flops." An article in The Daily Telegraph discussed the film among a "slew of new movies" that "have flopped at the box office." The Associated Press called the film a "box-office clunker." The film ultimately grossed $63 million worldwide, which included $15 million for its domestic gross and $48 million internationally.