From the director of the legendary Lord of the Rings movies, Peter Jackson's most recent project titled Mortal Engines could be a catastrophic failure, with expectations of the movie losing upwards of $100 million.
Mortal Engines which is based on the novel by Philip Reeve's has released in North America and has only managed to rake in a minuscule $7.5 million. Variety has reported that the sales expectations for the movie have projected an upwards loss of $100 million, some projections even reaching in the higher regions of $125 million. On a global scale, Mortal Engines has only made a total of $42 million so far, while having a budget of $100 million with tens of millions spent of marketing.
It may have been the wrong time-frame to release the film, as at the moment the movie is competing against other big titles such as; "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" and Clint Eastwood's new thriller "The Mule". According to Jeff Bock, an analyst for Exhibitor Relations, "This is a true Christmas disaster and a lump of coal for Universal, they took a big swing, and they struck out." Even though Mortal Engines has already been shown in Russia, the U.K., Australia, and Korea there still could be hope for the movie, as it has yet to open in the China marketplace which is a prominent factor in box office sales.