Johnny Depp was setting off another box-office bomb Friday, as the ensemble action comedy “Mortdecai” got off to a slow start.
“Mortdecai” will come in at less than $6 million for the weekend and be Depp’s fifth consecutive flop as a leading man, if it stays on the pace it was setting early Friday. That’s below the projections of analysts for the film, which were low to begin with at $10 million.
The Lionsgate Entertainment comedy and the Jennifer Lopez thriller “The Boy Next Door,” both R-rated, and Disney’s animated kids film “Strange Magic” opened nationwide Friday. They’re not expected to seriously challenge the current No. 1 movie, the Iraq War saga “American Sniper” for the top spot this weekend, though “The Boy Next Door” is headed towards a respectable $15 million opening.
“American Sniper” is on pace to hit around $60 million, while “Strange Magic” is also eyeing the $6 million range.
Depp tanked last year in the sci-fi film “Transcendence,” which followed 2013’s “The Lone Ranger,” 2012’s “Dark Shadows” and “The Rum Diaries” in 2011.
It’s been four years since his last hit, the blockbuster “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” though he is currently on screen as The Wolf in the Disney musical “Out of the Woods.”
The David Koepp-directed “Mortdecai” co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn, Paul Bettany, Jeff Goldblum and Oliver Platt. Oddlot Entertainment’s Andrew Lazar and Gigi Pritzker produced the $40 million comedy.