The Widowmaker Was A Box Office Flop

“K-19: The Widowmaker” wasn’t the best submarine movie ever made — in fact, it was arguably a pretty disappointing movie across the board, especially in terms of its financials. All in all, the film ended up making $65 million globally, $30 million of which came from the international box office and $35 million from domestic sales. That means on a budget of $100 million (other estimates have that number at $90 million), “K-19: The Widowmaker” was a certified flop.

But why? Harrison Ford had been a bankable star up until that point. Who wouldn’t want to see him being Harrison Ford on a submarine? Well, apparently quite a lot of people, especially internationally, where the film struggled to break the $2 million mark in any market other than Spain or Japan, where it made $2.7 million and $9.8 million, respectively.

In the United States, things were bad from the start, with “K-19” bringing in a dismal $12.7 million on its opening weekend — well below the $25 million that some, including Entertainment Weekly, were predicting at the time. The film came in fourth on its debut weekend, opening behind “Road To Perdition,” “Stuart Little 2,” and “Men In Black II,” the latter of which had already been out for three weeks. (It did, at least, manage to beat the debut of “Eight Legged Freaks.”)