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SPEED RACER A WRECK ON FIRST LAP Monday, May 12 2008 
Warner
Bros.'
Speed
Racer
was
barely
able
to
go
from
zero
to
20
--
$20
million,
that
is
--
and
could
turn
out
to
become
one
of
the
biggest
box-office
wrecks
in
history.
Most
analysts
low-balled
their
predictions
at
around
$30-40
million,
a
conservative
figure
in
itself
given
industry
estimates
that
it
cost
as
much
as
$300
million
to
produce
and
market.
Warner
Bros.
estimated
that
it
would
actually
end
up
with
$20.2
million,
(more)SPEED RACER A SLOW STARTER OVERSEAS, TOO Monday, May 12 2008 
Speed
Racer
hit
the
overseas
market
with
all
gaskets
blowing.
It
earned
just
$12.8
million
in
30
countries,
to
place
third
at
the
international
box
office,
behind
Iron
Man,
which
remained
the
top
film
with
a
gross
of
$39
million
in
its
second
week.
(It
has
now
grossed
$165
million
overseas.
With
its
domestic
gross,
its
worldwide
total
has
reached
$342.1
million
after
two
weekends.)
Twentieth
Century
Fox's
What
Happens
in
Vegas
actually
earned
(more) |
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Warner Bros. on Monday was being accused of cooking the books Monday after it turned out that their box-office estimate for the opening weekend of Speed Racer was way off the mark. The studio had predicted that the film would wind up with $20.2 million in ticket sales, putting it in second place. "It's far from the first time a studio with an underperforming pic has overestimated its Sunday gross and avoided an embarrassing third-place finish in Monday morning box office stories," Daily Variety commented today (Tuesday). The estimated figure, not the final one, is the one that receives the most play in the press -- if for no other reason than that Sunday is ordinarily a light news day. Few analysts had believed the studio's estimate, given the movie's weak showing on Friday and Saturday. (Weekend estimates include actual figures for Friday and Saturday and estimated sales for Sunday.) As things turned out, the movie debuted with just $18.6 million -- a figure that will no doubt cause heads eventually to fall at the studio, which reportedly spent $250-300 million to produce and market it. Taking over second place was the debuting romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas from 20th Century Fox, which wound up with $20.2 million, the same amount that had been forecast for Speed Racer. Meanwhile, the second weekend of Iron Man earned $51.2 million, more than the debuts of Vegas and Racer put together, keeping it in first place. 
