Why Pan could be this year's biggest flop

Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard in Pan, which is shaping up as one of the year's biggest flops.

Warner Brothers can add another flop to its list of movie failures after the big budget Pan brought in a puny US$15.5 million (NZ$23m) in America in its opening weekend.

The figures, provided by Variety, suggest the film could be shaping up to be a bigger disaster than 2012's John Carter, which just managed to make back its production budget thanks to popularity with global audiences.

So far, Pan has fared a little better overseas, bringing in US$25.1 million (NZ$37.5m) from foreign audiences, Box Office Mojo reported.

Read TimeOut's review of Pan here

Variety reported the movie cost NZ$224 million to make and would need to garner nearly NZ$600 million from global audiences in order to break even, once all costs including promotion were taken into account.

The movie, which is billed as a prequel to the well-known story of the boy who wouldn't grow up, has received generally unfavourable reviews on movie review site Metacritic, with an average review rating of just 35 per cent.

Early reviews criticised Pan's clichéd story and strange style choices, which include a random musical interlude where the cast sings Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit in an otherwise non-musical movie set in World War II-era London.

Variety's Andrew Barker said the film contained "the most hackneyed of contemporary fantasy-action tropes," calling it a "bungled bust" lacking in light heartedness and fun.

Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard the pirate in Pan

The film's cast includes Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara and Garrett Hedlund. Joe Wright, best known for prestige fare like Atonement, directed the picture.

Pan's failure continues a rocky stretch for Warner Brothers, which has suffered the string of pricey missteps recently, losing tens of millions on the likes of We Are Your Friends, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Jupiter Ascending.

It's been a tough season for most studios; Sony's Pixels has been widely slated as one of the year's worst movies, Disney's Tomorrowland was expected to lose more than US$100 million and Fox's Fantastic Four was the first Marvel superhero movie to fail to excite audiences.

Meanwhile, Ridley Scott has returned to form with his latest flick The Martian.

Starring Matt Damon, the sci-fi thriller took in a better-than-expected NZ$55 million domestically in its opening weekend, topping the list of releases. It took in a further US$58 million globally.

- nzherald.co.nz