Ghost In The Shell Could Lose $60 Million After It Flops At Box Office

Ghost in the Shell was one of March's highest profile movies, but it opened last weekend to disappointing box office results. It has now been reported that it could lose Paramount as much as $60 million.

According to Deadline, the movie had a total budget of $250 million, which includes the $110 million production cost and $140 million for worldwide publicity and advertising. The site projects the movie will make $200 million, taking $50 million in the US and the rest internationally.

However, Deadline's sources have suggested that the anime adaptation's production budget was in fact far higher than $110 million, possibly up to $180 million, meaning that Paramount's losses will be even larger.

As the site notes, a budget that size is normally the sort allocated to sequels and superhero movies, rather than adaptations of less famous foreign language properties. In addition, the controversy over the casting of Scarlett Johansson in a role that was Japanese in the source material caused a negative buzz which may have hurt its popularity.

Ghost in the Shell had a $18.8 million opening weekend in the US, and has to date made $62 million. Reviews of the movie were also mixed. GameSpot's reviewer Kallie Plagge said that the movie "not only doesn't answer or even truly explore the questions it raises, it also mishandles a story about identity by largely excluding the people it's about. That's a critical failure, and one that cannot be rectified by cool-looking geisha robots."