Weekend Box Office: 'Ghost in the Shell' Rules Worldwide

The Japanese manga adaptation topped the foreign box office this weekend, taking in a leading $41.3 million from 46 markets. That brings the science-fiction adventure’s global haul to $124.4 million, a disappointing result given its $110 million production budget and the tens of millions spent marketing and distributing the picture. Some publications are conservatively estimating that “Ghost in the Shell” will end its run $60 million in the hole.

Paramount, Reliance, and DreamWorks backed the picture, which stars Scarlett Johansson as a cyber warrior. “Ghost in the Shell” did get a boost from China, where it opened to $21.4 million. Japanese audiences were less receptive. The film debuted to a modest $3.2 million. “Ghost in the Shell” received a social media shellacking for the producers’ decision to cast Johansson in a role originally written for an Asian performer.

Read the rest of this article at Variety.