The Matt Damon and Jodie Foster vehicle Elysium has failed to crack the $30 million mark when it opened in the States this past weekend. Director Neill Blomkamp’s $115 million sci-fi epic earned less than his previous feature District 9, which took $37.4 million back in 2009 and that had a modest $30 million budget.

Elysium is just the latest of the big studios summer tent pole movies to seriously underperform and fall short of meeting box office expectations, along with After Earth, The Lone Ranger, Pacific Rim and R.I.P.D.

With so many of this year’s celluloid crop having withered away upon the vine the major studios may be hesitant in throwing money at big budget productions. In the last few days it was revealed that Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean 5 was to have its budget slashed, and that producer Jerry Bruckheimer would have less control over the project. With the high profile failure of the Bruckheimer produced The Lone Ranger, it could be Disney symbolically giving his knuckles a rap.

Perhaps this will be the prelude to lower budgeted movies which probably isn’t such a bad thing. You only have to look back to Hollywood’s past when a tighter budget in smaller movies inspired the film makers to be more creative.

In the meantime Sony will no doubt be hoping that Elysium will recoup its losses as it expands into its international markets. We certainly think it deserves to seen – check out our review HERE.

Source: Variety

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