'Robin Hood' Will Need To Steal From Everybody To Earn Back Its $200 Million Budget

With “Robin Hood” set to open the Cannes Film Festival today, and go head-to-head with “Iron Man 2” when it hits theaters on Friday, the film’s potential as a box-office success for Universal is still unclear. The reviews received so far have been divided, with some comparing it to “Batman Begins” while others make a point to note it isn’t as enjoyable as “Gladiator.” While the comparison to “Gladiator” is made for every Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe film, it can’t be ignored for this medieval epic. We reviewed the film earlier this week and found it to be derivative of what you’ve seen before in sword-and-sandal adventures, but made note of the grand-looking set pieces.

A copy of the production budget obtained by TheWrap reveals that “Robin Hood” apparently cost Universal $200 million to produce (after a tax rebate on the enormous $237 million budget), not including the costs to promote the film. Executives at Universal have admitted to a budget of $155 million with a representative of Universal denying the sum on the revealed budget saying: “We’re confident that ‘Robin Hood’ will perform to expectations this weekend. The budget on TheWrap is outdated and inaccurate,” but studios never confirm their actual costs on anything, so the denial here isn’t particularly surprising. And simply judging by what we saw on screen, the tally of $200 million doesn’t seem to be an outrageous claim to be making.

The enormous and maybe insurmountable budget for the film is perhaps an indication of Universal’s continuing inability to deliver box-office winners, with the most recently released “Green Zone” and “Wolfman” costing over $100 and $150 million to produce, respectively, but earning only $35 and $62 million domestically. And it was only last summer that the high profile failure of “Land of the Lost” ($49 million domestic box-office earnings on a $100 million budget) and the underperformance of pricey dramas like “Public Enemies”($100 million) and “Funny People” ($75 million) caused a change of leadership at Universal.

And the inclination to use “Gladiator” as a benchmark for “Robin Hood” (and every epic before it like “Troy” and “Kingdom of Heaven”) only adds to the pressure for box-office success. “Gladiator” managed $457 worldwide ten years ago, on par with today’s forgettable “Clash of the Titans,” but on a more modest budget. After reviewing the Robin Hood budget, the writing fees alone for the re-written “Nottingham” probably equal the cost of the post-production 3D conversion of ‘Titans’. Unfortunately re-writing the script doesn’t get you a 30% boost in ticket prices. On Scott’s $200 million budget (plus advertising) “Robin Hood” has a long journey ahead just to break even.

“Robin Hood” is, however, the first Scott film in ages with franchise potential (though a follow-up to “Gladiator” has been knocking around), with the director talking up plans for one or more sequel(s). In taking a familiar story and ramping it up with epic battles, there is potential to create franchise-type buzz and generate the box-office money of your standard tentpole. Perhaps calling on the name recognition of the ten-year-old “Gladiator” is a stretch, but “Robin Hood” may just carry some weight among the public. And although he is not a superhero, the story may just be far enough removed from reality to be a working metaphor for the current socio-economic climate, pitched at the right frequency to make political drama appealing to wide audiences – something even the action-oriented “Green Zone” with the pedigree of the ‘Bourne’ franchise behind it could not do for Iraq films. It will be interesting to see if audiences have bought into the heavy marketing for the film or don’t want to bother with a furrowed-brow take on the fable.

The fact is, even if “Iron Man 2” holds out really well in its second week, there are still plenty more riches to be had for “Robin Hood” and his merry men. The other competing films are already into their 4th weeks of release and on the way out – second place gathered only $9 million. And with only limited-appeal films “Just Wright” and “Letters to Juliet” coming out this weekend along with “Robin Hood” it sets up a two-horse race with an enormous purse (though “Iron Man 2” will very likely be the winner). An opening at least matching that of the $35 million take of “Gladiator” or the $44 million haul for “American Gangster” is realistic, but the real question remains: will it have the legs of either of those films? At a staggering two-and-a-half-hours, facing middling reviews and with serious competition in the coming weeks from “Shrek Forever After,” “Sex And The City 2” and “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time” Robin Hood may be facing his greatest challenge yet. – Srdjan Knezevic