Delgo Has Worst Opening Ever

[silverscreenselect]

Delgo, an animated fantasy film boasting the vocal talents of hot properties such as Kelly Ripa, Burt Reynolds, Chris Kattan, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Anne Bancroft (who's been dead for three and a half years which gives you some idea how long this movie has been on the shelf), set a dubious box office record last weekend as the worst opening weekend box office of any film playing on at least 2000 screens. The film earned $511,000 on 2160 screens, which averages to two people per theater per screening. This is the same amount that Meryl Streep's Doubt earned over the weekend while playing on only 15 screens.

Already, the term "Delgo" is being used in Hollywood circles to describe an animated bomb, and the film may join classics like Plan 9 from Outer Space.

The animation for the film was done by Fathom Studios, an Atlanta company, for whom this represents their first feature film. It may also be their last. When the company couldn't find a major studio willing to pick up the project, they hired a distribution company to do it for them. The company has been working on the project since 1996, with actual production beginning in 2000. Anne Bancroft died before her role was completely recorded, so they got a member of the production team to finish her role, using some computer tweaking to make the voice sound more like Bancroft's. It's really a shame that these people invested so much effort into something that will become nothing more than the punchline for some bad jokes.

Although the movie may well wind up with one of the worst box office totals in history, it's not going to be the biggest money loser of all time, since it "only" cost $40 million to produce. Most people feel that Eddie Murphy's "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," which wound up with a $200 million budget, is the biggest money loser of all time.

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/movies/art ... delgo.html