THE GREAT WALL IS MATT DAMON’S WORST WIDE RELEASE BOX OFFICE OPENING WEEKEND SINCE 2011
The Great Wall surpassed many industry expectations for its opening weekend, but the Matt Damon-starring action film’s third-place debut ranks as Matt Damon’s worst wide release since 2011.
With an estimated $18,475,685 this past weekend, The Great Wall‘s wide release is the Jason Bourne actor’s lowest since We Bought a Zoo released in 2011. That Cameron Crowe-directed movie, which also starred Scarlett Johansson and Elle Faning, opened to $9,360,434 unadjusted. Even adjusted for inflation, the film only comes in slightly above $10 million.
Check out the openings of all Damon starring films since 2011, with numbers via Box Office Mojo:
| Movie | Year of Release | Opening Weekend in Release Year | Opening Weekend Adjusted for Inflation to 2017 |
| The Great Wall | 2017 | $18,475,685 | $18,475,685 |
| Jason Bourne | 2016 | $59,215,365 | $59,914,086 |
| The Martian | 2015 | $54,308,575 | $55,642,591 |
| The Monuments Men | 2014 | $22,003,433 | $22,570,676 |
| Elysium | 2013 | $29,807,393 | $31,071,818 |
| We Bought a Zoo | 2011 | $9,360,434 | $10,105,310 |
Damon did star in the Gus Van Sant film Promised Land in 2012, which opened in limited release in only 25 theaters to $173,915, followed by a wider expansion in 2013. However, Promised Land’s expansion also only grew to include 1,676 theaters, which is just over half of the number of theaters both The Great Wall and We Bought a Zoo opened in (3,326 and 3,170, respectively), making the comparison to Van Sant’s film much less applicable than to Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo.
Every other Damon-starring film since 2011 has debuted to over $20 million, with Jason Bourne performing best since then, with a $59 million unadjusted opening. 2011 also saw three Damon-starring films outperform The Great Wall’s opening in their debuts — Happy Feet Two, Contagion, and The Adjustment Bureau, all three of which opened north of $20 million.
And though the domestic totals don’t bode well for The Great Wall’s performance in the U.S., the film’s worldwide total offers a more complete picture of the film’s performance. Already The Great Wall has amassed $266.3 million worldwide, making it Damon’s 11th best performing film around the world ever, unadjusted for inflation. Of that figure, nearly 92 percent of the film’s box office haul so far has come from international markets, including China, where the film debuted in December 2016 and has already made $170 million.
The next closest movie in Damon’s filmography for The Great Wall to eclipse is Elysium, which made $286.1 million worldwide, a figure that The Great Wall should be able to pass. Domestically, however, the film’s total after the four-day weekend stands as Damon’s 33rd highest-grossing film unadjusted for inflation, and his 36th highest-grossing film adjusted for inflation.
For more on The Great Wall, check out IGN’s review of the film. And for the latest box office news, check out how The LEGO Batman Movie’s debut stacked up against all other Batman movies.
