#movie:pan

[ethanalter]

Rooney Mara on the challenges of 'Una,' the controversy of 'Pan,' and the bathroom-less 'Mary Magdalene' (plus exclusive 'Una' scene)

With Lisbeth Salander officially in her rear-view, Rooney Mara has been exploring a diverse range of roles and films. Earlier this year, the actress co-starred in the Sundance favorite, A Ghost Story, as the lover of the titular spirit (Casey Affleck) who expresses her grief at his loss in an epic, extended sequence of pie consumption. And Friday brings the release of Una, an adaptation of the acclaimed 2005 play Blackbird, which originally played the film festival circuit in 2016. As a self-professed fan of the play, Mara actively pursued the opportunity to headline the movie version as the title character — a childhood sexual abuse survivor who, as an adult, tracks down the man, Ray (Ben Mendelsohn), who took advantage of her… and who she still has feelings for. Watch an exclusive clip from Una above and read Yahoo Entertainment’s interview with Mara about her experience navigating this difficult emotional terrain, why she still hasn’t seen the film, and being at the center of a whitewashing controversy over her role as Tiger Lily in Pan.

Yahoo Entertainment: What discussions did you have with Una director Benedict Andrews about how the play, and your performance, could look onscreen? Rooney Mara: I was a huge fan of the play, and always wanted to do it as a play. But I’m also intrigued by ideas that seem like they could go horribly wrong, so when I heard Benedict was doing it as a film, I was like, “How is that possible?” [Laughs] I met with him, and he knew the material so well and he’s obviously such an accomplished theater director, I thought it would be safe with him. The plays has an element of being stuck, and it’s very uncomfortable for everyone. You can’t look away, you can’t go anywhere and you don’t get a break from it. The way Benedict set the film up, we didn’t shoot it in order, but it was Ben and us most of the time. It was very intense, very intimate, and that made it really hard when other people, like Riz [Ahmed, who has a supporting role in the film], came in. Ben and I were our own little thing, and it was great that we got to start in that really intense space.

One visual element I noticed onscreen is that certain settings — like the warehouse where much of the movie takes place — are almost treated as a stage and the other characters in that environment take on the role of a theatrical audience, trying to observe the characters’ private drama. That’s interesting; I never thought of it like that. Those were interesting days in that warehouse. I was definitely the person on set saying, “The play has it like this, and you cut that line out!” There’s one scene where Ben and I are in the bathroom together, and we didn’t like the way it was written. On the way to set, we read through that scene in the play and it was great be like, “This is what it feels like to do [the play].” So we brought some of that into the scene, and rewrote it on the day. It was good to try and make the film its own thing.

Did you have any contact with Ruby Stokes, who plays the younger Una in flashbacks, to coordinate the character’s arc? She was there for a few of the rehearsal days, and I saw tons of video of her. I also worked with the dialect coach to match her voice. We couldn’t have a kid change her voice to match whatever dialect I wanted to do! But we didn’t have that much interaction other than that; there just wasn’t the time on this film. She also recorded all of my lines, so I had her voice in my head and I spent all day listening to it. I felt very close to her.

Rooney Mara in Una (Photo: Madman Entertainment)

Another recurring visual motif is the scene of young Una waiting for Ray to return. All these years later, as an adult, she’s never really left that room. That’s the thing I felt most strongly about; this is someone who has let this thing define every aspect of her life, and she’s totally stuck. It’s informed every aspect of her life: her relationship with her mom feels very stunted, her relationship with sex and men and constantly seeking that out. Those were sort of the most important things to me. And I hope that, at the end of the movie, she’s sort of had the realization that she’s a whole person. That she thinks, “This thing that happened is part of me, but it doesn’t have to define me.”

The movie explores this uncomfortable territory of a victim who insists she’s not a victim. Did you think of her as a victim in your portrayal? Of course. She was 12 years old, so absolutely. But I think probably a lot of victims don’t consider themselves victims. That’s a huge part of it psychologically — you feel like it was your fault, and you take blame for it. That’s a huge part of it. I think most victims can relate to that feeling, that they’re not victims. The way I felt it, deep down, was that she thought it was love and all these people convinced her, “No, you were abused.” That’s why she has to go to Ray. She has to know for herself if it was love or if those people were right. So I didn’t ever come at it from Rooney’s judgment; I was always coming at it from Una’s perspective.

What’s been your experience when you’ve watched the film with audiences? I haven’t had that much experience [with that], but I think people have very mixed reactions to it, as they should with such polarizing material. The thing that I took away from the play anyway — I haven’t seen the film — was the conflict of watching it. There’s a part of me that wanted it to be love and wanting Una and Ray, as adults, to be together. But then also feeling like, “No, this is wrong. He’s a horrible person.” I feel so conflicted about it, but I also felt for Ray. May other people feel that, too. I don’t know.

Do you plan to watch the film? I would like to see it at some point, yeah. Last year, when I could have seen it, I wasn’t in the headspace where I wanted to. I was about to go off and work, and I just couldn’t handle seeing it. I haven’t had the opportunity since then.

Ed Skrein recently earned applause for dropping out of the Hellboy reboot after accusations of whitewashing. You had our own experience with that controversy after being cast as Tiger Lily in Pan, a character who has frequently been depicted as Native American in most adaptations. I want to clarify, because people always say this: I wasn’t cast in a Native American role. I would never do that. In the original book, it’s the “Piccaninny tribe,” and what Joe [Wright, the director of Pan] was trying to do was make them native to Neverland. I was a fan of Joe’s and wanted to work with him, and when he talked about it to me, I was like, “Yeah, that sounds nice.” I totally agree that, whether or not she was Native American in the original book, that’s the way she been depicted, and people love [that version] of the character. So yes, they should have used a Native American for that role or one of the four leads should have been something other than blond-haired and blue-eyed. In retrospect, I don’t want to be on that side of the conversation, so I think it’s great that [Skrein] did that.

Is that something you can see yourself doing in the future if a similar situation availed itself to you?Yeah, definitely.

Watch the Pan trailer below:

You recently finished shooting Mary Magdalene with Garth Davis and Joaquin Phoenix What was that experience like? It was a long shoot, or felt like a long shoot anyway. We were in a foreign country and out in the mountains all day — no bathrooms, no nothing — with Jesus and the disciples. You’re just like, “Where am I? What’s happening?” It was really challenging, and also really beautiful experience. I don’t know what the film will be. It’s very feminist, I hope. It felt like that when we were making it, so I hope that comes through. It also doesn’t feel like a religious film to me. It’s hopefully a spiritual film, but we didn’t make a religious film, per se.

Do you anticipate any controversy when the film opens? It won’t be unlike Una in that way — both films are going to provoke a reaction. Yeah, I am, but I’m not scared of it. That’s a debate that I’m happy to be a part of, as opposed to the other one we were just talking about. I don’t want to be on the wrong side of that debate, but I feel like with this it’s different. It’ll be good controversy. Especially a subject as controversial as religion that is so engrained in every part of society.

Una is currently playing in limited theatrical release in New York and opens in Los Angeles on Oct. 13. Mary Magdalene is slated to open on March 30, 2018.

  Watch the Una trailer:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

Rooney Mara wanted to return for Dragon Tattoo sequel, ‘but they decided to do a different thing’

A Ghost Story director says it’s OK to laugh at Rooney Mara’s pie binge

Claire Foy to replace Rooney Mara in Dragon Tattoo sequel

[gwynnew]

2015's Biggest Box-Office Losers

Even in a strong box-office year, they can’t all be winners. The biggest flops of 2015 include films in such typically can’t-lose categories as superhero movies, live-action fairytales, and ‘90s blockbuster reboots. And while audiences continue to be enraptured by Star Wars and those darn Minions, they seem to be losing interest in dystopian YA and crass male-ensemble comedies. Click through above for some of the year’s biggest box-office losers – and for the winners, go here. 

‘Fantastic Four’

In recent years, films starring Marvel superheroes have been a sure thing (even when made by non-Marvel studios, as in the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises). That changed this summer with the dramatic failure of Fox’s Fantastic Four, a big-budget movie plagued with production problems that opened to abysmal reviews and barely-there box office. It was clobberin’ time, all right – but Fantastic Four was on the receiving end. (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Reboots nobody wanted

Hey Hollywood, just because a film or TV property has reached a certain age, doesn’t mean that everyone wants a new version. Was anyone clamoring for a Jason Statham-less Transporter movie, a new Vacation comedy (pictured), or a feature film of '60s spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.? Judging from the numbers, the answer is no. (Photo: Warner Bros.)

‘Terminator Genisys’

Here’s a reboot that audiences actually did want, complete with a new heroine (Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke) and an encore performance from Arnold Schwarzenegger. Why did it flop in the U.S.? (It performed much better overseas.) Blame bad marketing and reviews, a nonsensical story, leaked spoilers, or Schwarzenegger’s declining appeal, but everyone feeling nostalgic for the ‘90s went and saw Jurassic World instead. (Photo: Paramount)

Fictional musicians

While the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton and the heartbreaking Amy Winehouse documentary Amy surpassed box-office expectations, moviegoers passed on musical films about fictional hit-makers. Ricki and the Flash (featuring the guitar-playing debut of Meryl Streep), the ill-conceived Jem and the Holograms (pictured), and the Zac Efron-starring EDM drama We Are Your Friends all struck a bum note. (Image: Universal)

‘Steve Jobs’

The all-star team of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) and director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) seemed an inspired choice to tackle the modern myth of the Apple cofounder. But Universal overestimated the audience for a brainy chamber piece about a tech company, and despite positive reviews (particularly for stars Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet), the studio was soon dropping the film from hundreds of screens. (Photo: Universal)

‘The Walk’

Director Robert Zemeckis hoped to score a feel-good fall hit with the true story of Twin Towers wire-walker Philippe Petit. While critics found the 3D visuals stunning, the film suffered from comparisons to the 2008 Petit documentary Man on Wire, and neither pre-9/11 nostalgia nor star Joseph Gordon-Levitt helped draw an audience. (Photo: Sony)

Dystopian YA films

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (pictured), The Divergent Series: Insurgent, and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials all did enviable box office. However, all three sequels opened below expectations, failing to clear the numbers of the film before – which could mean that the loyal audience for these movies is shrinking. The future of dystopian YA adaptations may soon look as dire as a pre-Katniss Panem. (Photo: Lionsgate)

‘Pan’

There was no fairytale ending for Warner Bros’ Peter Pan prequel, which cost $150 million and made under $35 million domestically. The year’s most expensive flop did better overseas, but still ended up in the red, mainly because family audiences weren’t interested, a delayed release date generated bad buzz, and critics largely took the film’s title as an instruction. (Photo: Warner Bros.)

‘Stonewall’ and ‘Freeheld’

Supposedly, inspiring true stories about gay characters are irresistible to awards voters — but it helps if they’re actually good. The pandering Freeheld (pictured) and offensively tone-deaf Stonewall didn’t see any love at the box office and probably won’t at the Oscars. On the other hand, well-made LGBT films like Carol, The Danish Girl, the Netflix doc Tig, and even the micro-budget Tangerine have drawn both audiences and accolades. (Photo: Lionsgate)

Bro comedies

In a reversal from just a few years ago, moviegoers showed little interest in the juvenile hijinks of grown men. Bro comedies like Entourage (pictured), Pixels, Ted 2, Hot Tub Time Machine 2, and even the well-reviewed The Night Before ranked among 2015’s notable bombs. (Photo: Warner Bros.)

[1950schick]

Pan: The movie

Now I get that not everyone likes the same types of movies, but to hate on one movie because you just don't understand the story is bad. I know Tiger Lilly is supposed to be indian, and I think that they should of kept it that way, but the story when you get it is awesome. At least those are my thoughts.

[yahoo-premium-partners]

'Pan' Flop Could Lead to $150 Million Loss

‘Pan’ (Warner Bros. Pictures)

By Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter

Don't count on Warner Bros. returning to Neverland anytime soon.

Unless Joe Wright's big-budget Pan suddenly discovers a treasure trove of pixie dust, the movie could see losses in the $130 million to $150 million range after opening to a disastrous $15.3 million in North America over the Oct. 9-11 weekend, according to analysts and box-office experts contacted by The Hollywood Reporter. No one would yet speak on the record.

Pan also is struggling internationally, grossing $20.4 million over the weekend from 54 markets for an early foreign total of $25.2 million (it opened two weeks ago in Australia) and a meek worldwide cume of $40.5 million. One wild card is China, where the film rolls out Oct. 22. If Pan does better than expected in the world's second-largest movie market, the losses could be lower.

Related: Box Office: How 'Pan' Turned Into an Epic Flop

The new leadership at Warner Bros. had grand ambitions for Pan when agreeing to a $150 million budget and hefty marketing spend in early 2014. Kevin Tsujihara, who took over as chairman-CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment in March 2013, and his team were keen on building new family friendly franchises to make up for the loss of Harry Potter.

But audiences out-and-out rejected Wright's take on J. M. Barrie's book about the boy who never grows up. The movie, starring Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara, Garrett Hedlund and newcomer Levi Miller, was ravaged by critics and earned a lukewarm B+ from audiences. Warner Bros. knew it had a troubled picture. Its release date was bumped from July to October to avoid the summer competition.

"It's been a rough year for Warner Bros., but look at what they have next year between Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad and Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts," said MKM Partners analyst Eric Handler, who believes the studio can weather the current storm, thanks to a vibrant video game division and television syndication. He declined to estimate how much Pan could lose.

If the film's theatrical gross tops out at $150 million worldwide, it will see returns of about $135 million between film box-office returns (or film rentals) and ancillary revenues, including home entertainment and television deals, according to rough calculations by insiders. However, when factoring in a global marketing spend of $125 million, that means the movie cost $275 million to produce and sell. Hence, the loss would be about $140 million. The range of $130 million to $150 million accounts for the fact that analysts don't know exactly how much Warners spent on marketing, or exactly where Pan will end up at the box office. The studio declined to comment.

Related: Box Office: 'Pan' Bombs With $15.5M Debut; 'Martian' Stays No. 1 With Stellar $37M

Pan joins a string of films that have lost money for the studio this year, including pricey titles Jupiter Ascending — which lost well north of $100 million — and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

So far, Warners hasn't publicly commented on Pan's debut, refusing even to discuss the film on the record during traditional Sunday box-office calls with the media. "It came in so much lighter than anything we could have predicted. The movie failed to bring in an audience of any size," said one executive, who declined to be identified.

RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Warners' co-financing partner, put up a quarter of the budget for Pan, somewhat reducing the studio's exposure. And it's likely the studio already took a write-down on Pan when pushing back the film's release from July to Oct. 8.

Pan was produced by Greg Berlanti's Berlanti Productions. Sarah Schechter shepherded the project at the studio before leaving to become president of Berlanti's teleivsion and film company, based at Warner Bros.

Watch a trailer:

[ymoviesuk-group]

Cara Delevingne’s Mermaids Steal The New Pan Trailer

Crikey... we're seeing double mermaids.

Not a sentence we thought we'd ever write, but thanks to Cara Delevingne's trailer-stealing appearance in the new clip for 'Pan', here we are.

- First look at Fassbender in Steve Jobs biopic - The Queen gets tough in new Minions trailer - How Disney re-used old animation

The latest peak at director Joe Wright's lavish, big budget (that's $150 million) origin story of Peter Pan is a bounteous thing indeed, with model Delevingne seemingly playing all the half-fish, half-women in Mermaid Lagoon.

Elsewhere, there are some eye-popping special effects, 'that wig' once more perched atop Hugh Jackman's head and could that be a glimpse of the Tick-Tock Croc gone all Godzilla?

Peter is played newcomer Levi Miller, with a sterling cast also featuring Jackman as the dastardly Blackbeard, Garrett Hedlund as a young James Hook (on the right side of things this time), Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, Amanda Seyfried as Mary Darling and Adeel Akhtar as Mr Smee.

Elsewhere, there's spots for Leni Zieglmeier as Wendy, Kathy Burke, Jack Charles, Nonso Anozie, and Paul Kaye.

Landing on the other side of the summer, you can check it at cinemas from October 16.

[rumiinatophat]

*

[ethanalter]

Kristen Stewart on how she turned a fixation into her directing debut and whether she'd ever helm a 'Twilight'-style blockbuster

Stewart on the Come Swim set (Photo: Lindsey Byrnes/courtesy Everett Collection)

As a child actress growing up on the sets for films like Panic Room and Catch That Kid, Kristen Stewart learned early on to pay close attention to the director behind the camera. “That’s your boss,” she tells Yahoo Entertainment about her earliest memories of watching filmmakers at work. “You look to that person for everything. When a movie is really good, it takes a lot of people’s efforts. But what starts it is something so singular with a specific perspective. Even when I was really little, I knew that my job was to listen to that [perspective] and hold it like it was precious. And even as a little kid, I was like, ‘F**k, I’d like to hold that myself one day and share it!'”

Flash-forward to the present day, and the now 27-year-old actress is sharing her own directorial debut with the world, the evocative short film, Come Swim. After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the 17-minute production is being released today as part of Refinery 29’s Shatterbox Anthology, which provides a platform to emerging female filmmakers. Starring first-time actor, Josh Kaye, Come Swim grew out of a recurring image that embedded itself in Stewart’s mind several years ago and became the linchpin for a half-realist, half-impressionist portrait of a man whose mind is plagued by memories of a failed love affair, to the point where he feels like he’s drowning even on dry land. We spoke with Stewart about how she relates to the character we see onscreen and whether she has any desire to direct a Twilight-style blockbuster.

Yahoo Entertainment: You’ve said that the idea for Come Swim originated with the image of a man sleeping at the bottom of the ocean. Where did the vision come from? Kristen Stewart: Initially, I was just fixated on the idea of a person that’s so over-aware of what’s essential to them — what they’re really in need of — but are unable to absorb it. So even at the bottom of the ocean, the most ultra-hydrated place in the world, they’re dry. When you’re in your own head, your pain and struggle seems so dramatic and unrelatable. And yet, it’s so universal! There’s any any feeling that somebody hasn’t before you. Once you’re in it, it feels all-consuming, but when you step back, you go, “What the f**k have I been doing?”

For me, the film tapped into that feeling of being mentally underwater: there’s so much buzzing around in your head, and you’re just in need of a moment of clarity. Exactly. He’s punishing himself with memories and can’t really organize them. He can’t put them somewhere easy to process. I wanted to externalize a very internal sound. When he starts out, he feels things are whizzing by him, and he can’t grab them, but they also won’t go away. It’s about waking up in the morning and going, “Wow, I’m allowed to use my mind! It’s not controlling me.” When you’re in that state, easy things seem hard.

Is there something about the modern world that exacerbates that? You place the character in settings like a busy office and the front seat of his car, where there’s a lot of stimuli. I wanted to put him in places that were normal; stripped-down environments without much detail. We don’t have much time to get to know this guy really well, so what I wanted you to focus on was your own projections of doing mundane things like getting up and going to work. But he is always cubed in: his office cubicle is small, the car is small. It’s only once he gets outside and finds the ocean that he allows himself to breath. His regrets about his relationship that have sent him into this existential crisis, and even though he hates swimming and water, he realizes he’s got to let himself float. Water is stronger than us, and if you fight it, you’re just going to f**king tire and drown. But if he lets himself look like a dork and bob around in the water, when he gets out he’ll be cold, but he’ll also realize that he’s not going to have to try and control everything.

Josh Kaye in Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, Come Swim (Photo: John Guleserian/Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

The character’s circumstances are intended to be universal, but in working with Josh Kaye did you discover that men and women have different responses to this kind of mental state? I think there are big differences between him and I, but more on an individual level. It doesn’t really have much to do with gender necessarily. The character in the story isn’t necessarily me, but I wanted to be as close to it as I could. The main difference between us is that I’m a little bit more explosive. There are a few things in the film that I’m so excited I didn’t do myself, because he grins and bears it whereas I think I would be a little more dramatic. He’s never acted in anything before, so he wasn’t trying to prove anything to me. He was just realistically in this environment, and allowed whatever memories or ideas to stir him.

You incorporated paintings you made into the film via a process called “neural style transfer” as opposed to traditional CGI. Was that at process you had a hand in developing? No, I have a friend who works at a VFX house and she was familiar with Bhautik Joshi’s research. I spoke with her about my painting and how I wanted it to feel illustrated in the film; I wanted parts of the movie to feel like a painting. I was talking a lot about grain and how to do that, and she told me about this guy who could take a physical painting and apply that style to a moving picture. So he helped us out, but I think it was something he came up with and when the movie came out it was a good chance for him to talk about that process. I was lucky to be able to do it and take those two mediums and put them together. [Stewart is listed as a co-author of an academic paper about neural style transfer that’s on file with Cornell University.]

Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman (Photo: Universal Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection)

Has working on big-budget movies like Twilight and Snow White and the Huntsman made you leery of incorporating CGI into your own films? Not at all. Initially, I thought I was going to need a lot of digital work on Come Swim. I had this long list of shots, but after we went out and shot everything I kept crossing them off my list during post-production, going “I don’t need that one, I don’t need that one.” We did minimal digital work, because everything we did physically was so cool. All of the make-up work on Josh was practical and worked. I really like it when you only have to use a small amount [of CGI] to patch things up and refine them. If you can get as much as you can while taking f**king pictures, that’s what looks the most immersive.

Would you ever want to do direct a tentpole film yourself or does that not hold any interest for you? Maybe, because I do like to suspend reality; not in a way that’s fantasy, but to get inside someone’s head and really feel embedded in something internal. Because a lot of times it doesn’t resemble what you’re seeing on the outside. So I think I’ll want to make small movies; I have no interest in making huge movies, although I like working on them as an actor.

One of your earliest movies was Panic Room, directed by David Fincher. Do you recall observing any part of his process on set that you held onto for your own work? That was the second movie I ever made. I was lucky to have that experience so young because it was so labor-intensive and for all the right reasons. I always want to be in movies where if you have to work tirelessly and endlessly, and if it has to hurt and you have to do it over and over again, you get something that really matters at any cost. That’s what you do — you just do f**king anything to get it. That [feeling] probably started on that movie.

Stewart and Jodie Foster in Panic Room (Photo: Merrick Morton/courtesy Everett Collection)

It certainly feels like the fans that have grown up with you through the Twilight films are embracing the work you’re doing now. Are you conscious of how they’re seeing you evolve as an artist, and do you hope they take any lessons from you as the develop their own creative voices? Yeah, of course. No one is so special as to have any kind of original thought or feeling that nobody’s had before you. But I really do follow my gut as to the things I’m drawn to artistically and hope that there will be someone out there that feels it too. For that, I’m lucky. I don’t think about the greater narrative [of my life] or alter my decisions to say things to people. But I feel that if you’re really honest about something and are exploring something that feels worth it, there will be other people interested in it, too.

Come Swim is available to watch today on Refinery29.

Watch the trailer:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

‘November Criminals’: Ansel Elgort and Chloë Grace Moretz share a sweet moment in exclusive clip

‘The Greatest Showman’: Check out exclusive character posters from Hugh Jackman’s new musical

‘Thor: Ragnarok’: Your mighty guide to all the Easter eggs, in-jokes, and callbacks

[yahoo-premium-partners]

Box Office: How 'Pan' Turned Into an Epic Flop

‘Pan’ (Warner Bros. Pictures)

By Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter

Early on in Pan, a young Peter Pan asks "where's the bacon" when being served a watery bowl of gruel at an orphanage in World War II London.

Little did British director Joe Wright and Warner Bros. know how prophetic the question would become.

Over the weekend, the ambitious Peter Pan origin story bombed at the North American box office, grossing a paltry $15.5 million despite a $150 million production budget and a friendly PG rating. Pan, from Warner Bros. and co-financing partner RatPac-Dune Entertainment, could lose more than $100 million unless the live-action movie does huge business overseas, a tough proposition.

The film took in $20.5 million this weekend internationally from 52 markets representing 40 percent of the foreign marketplace, putting its early global total at a worrisome $40.6 million (it opened in Australia two weekends ago). One hope is China, where Pan rolls out Oct. 22. So far, it is doing best in Latin America, while struggling in Europe.

Related: Box Office: 'Pan' Bombs With $15.5M Debut; 'Martian' Stays No. 1 With Stellar $37M

Wright's grand plan for his trip to Neverland didn't pan out. The lucrative family audience rejected the live-action film, starring Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara, Garrett Hedlund, newcomer Levi Miller and plenty of special effects. It's another blow for the leadership at at Warners, which has suffered a string of misses this year, including pricey titles Jupiter Ascending and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

The studio declined comment on Pan's performance, but one Warners executive said, "it came in so much lighter than anything we could have predicted. The movie failed to bring in an audience of any size."

Only 23 percent of Pan's audience was under the age of 18. As a way of comparison, 44 percent of ticket buyers going to see Disney's live-action Cinderella earlier this year were under the age of 18.

Related: Hugh Jackman's 'Pan' Sets Worldwide Premiere Dates

Females, and especially younger females, fueled hits like Cinderella and Disney's Maleficent. Femmes made up 77 percent of Cinderella's audience on opening weekend and 60 percent of Maleficent ticket buyers. This demo were less keen to see Pan, making up 55 percent of the audience.

Leading up to its release, Pan was ravaged by critics. Some reviewers described it as a sort ofIndiana Jones meets Avatar, with Jackman's Blackbeard compared to the villain in Mad Max: Fury Road. And Wright's decision to have Blackbeard and his gang of pirates sing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was heavily debated. Pan is the first studio tentpole directed by Wright, known for speciality fare like Atonement and Pride and Prejudice.

"Reboots are always tricky," said box-office analyst Phil Contrino. "There's always the risk that fans of a property won't be in tune with the new vision and that seems to be what has happened here."

Adds a rival studio executive, "Pan is neither fish nor fowl. It's trying to be too many things."

Related: Thousands Protest 'Peter Pan's' White Tiger Lily

The film also sparked controversy when Wright chose Mara, instead of a Native American actress, to play Tiger Lily, prompting a petition urging Warner Bros. to stop casting white actors as people of color.

"Tough reviews, a change of release date and other factors conspired to create this opening weekend performance. Certainly, while the origin story concept in and of itself is not a bad thing, audiences may have had trouble grasping the concept of the film," said Paul Dergarabedian of Rentrak. "The silver lining may come in the international theatrical marketplace and of course down the road on home video where curious audiences may want to check out the film and have additional in home content for their kids."

Pan was originally set to open this past July, but a worried Warners delayed its release to fall, presumably a quieter corridor. The movie had tested poorly, and the studio wanted to do reshoots. But that plan didn't quite work out.

Related: 'Pan': Film Review

Dergarabedian and Contrino cite competition from holdovers The Martian and Hotel Transylvania 2 as another reason Pan got destroyed. Over the weekend, 10 percent of The Martian's audience was under the age of 18, proof that families are turning out to see the space epic, starring Matt Damon. And Hotel Transylvania 2 is a natural draw for younger kids.

For Hotel Transylvania 2 to beat Pan in its third weekend, both domestically and internationally, is a stinging blow.

"Following the huge success of Hotel Transylvania 2 wasn't an easy task," says Contrino. "And it definitely stole away some of the momentum Pan might have had."

Watch a trailer:

[yahoo-premium-partners]

Box Office: 'Pan' Bombs With $15.5M Debut; 'Martian' Stays No. 1 With Stellar $37M

By Pamela McClintock

Joe Wright's big-budget Pan is looking like a major loss for Warner Bros. after opening to $15.5 million from 3,515 theaters in North America, a disastrous start for a film that cost $150 million to make.

Instead, Ridley Scott's The Martian won the weekend race with a better-than-expected $37 million from 3,854 locations after declining a mere 32 percent in its second outing for a domestic total of $108.7 million. The space epic, starring Matt Damon, also continued to dazzle overseas, earning another $56.8 million for a foreign total of $117.8 million and worldwide cume of $226.5 million.

In the U.S., Pan even got beat by Sony's rival family offering Hotel Transylvania 2, which took in $20.3 million from 3,768 theaters in its third weekend for a North American total of $116.8 million.

In short, families didn't show much interest in Wright's Peter Pan origins tale. The film received scathing reviews and a B+ CinemaScore from audiences. Warners has had a tough ride at the box office this year, and Pan furthers its woes. The studio declined official comment, but one distribution source said "the movie failed to bring in an audience of any size."

Originally, the live-action family title was set to open this past July and be a prominent summer player, but Warners knew there were problems and pushing its release back at the 11th hour, saying reshoots were needed. The film is a special-effects extravaganza, with virtually no real sets.

Pan hopes to make up ground overseas, where it opened in numerous major markets this weekend. And it rolls out in China Oct. 22. Unless it does big business internationally, Warners is facing a steep loss, much as Disney and Fox did this year with Tomorrowland and Fantastic Four, respectively. So far, returns are muted. The film earned $4.1 million Friday for an early foreign total of $11 million, including $4.3 million in Australia, where it opened two weekends ago.

Pan isn't the isn't the only high-profile movie that struggled.

Robert Zemeckis' The Walk expanded nationwide Friday into more than 2,500 locations after debuting to a muted $1.6 million last weekend in an exclusive Imax run. The film took in $3.7 million for a seventh-place finish and domestic total of $6.4 million. It's the lowest nationwide start on record for the filmmaker.

Sony and TriStar surely hoped for more, although The Walk cost a modest $35 million to make, so the studio's financial exposure is limited. The studio also hopes the film plays throughout awards season.

One new offering eagerly embraced by audiences in New York and Los Angeles was Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs, from Universal. The Steve Jobs biopic took in $521,000 for the weekend from four theaters, putting its location average at $130,236 — the best showing of 2015 to date and the biggest since American Sniper ($158,354). It's also among the top screen averages of all time.

Steve Jobs' performance bodes well as it prepares to expand timed to awards season. The critically acclaimed film was written by Aaron Sorkin and stars Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen and Jeff Daniels.

Documentary He Named Me Malala, another awards hopeful, expanded into a total of 446 theaters in its second weekend, earning an estimated $670,000 for a location average of roughly $1,502. That puts the movie's early cume at $752,000 million for Fox Searchlight.

Elsewhere, The Intern — a bright spot for Warners — continued to hold well, grossing an estimated $8.5 million from 3,224 theaters in its fourth weekend for a domestic total of $49.2 million. The Anne Hathaway-Robert DeNiro comedy placed No. 4, followed by Denis Villeneuve's awards contender Sicario with a pleasing $7.2 million from 2,620 locations. From Lionsgate, Sicario has now earned north of $26 million domestically.

[rumiinatophat]

*