Hollywood's latest video game-based would-be blockbuster Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has out-earned its fellow adaptations to become the the highest-grossing game movie ever -- but the movie has failed to live up to Disney's hopes of creating a new Pirates of the Caribbean-style summer blockbuster franchise.
The main failing of Sands of Time, based on the long-running
Prince of Persia game series created by Jordan Mechner, has been its domestic performance to date. On an estimated production budget of $200 million, the film has seen United States box office revenues of about $81 million, according to
Box Office Mojo data.
The film debuted in the number two box office slot, behind Sex and the City 2, failing to light the charts ablaze, and then quickly slid down the rankings.
Disney-owned distributor Buena Vista paired the video game license with Jerry Bruckheimer, hoping the producer could create another summer success in the vein of the unexpectedly lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Overseas, however, Sands of Time has seen box office fortunes that dwarf its domestic results, earning $213 million to date, bringing total worldwide box office to nearly $295 million. That's enough to edge out 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which brought in $275 million. (Adjusting for inflation, however, Tomb Raider earned $334 million.)
Curse of the Black Pearl, the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, exceeded $300 million in domestic box office alone, more than doubling that sum when overseas revenues were included. While that film saw roughly half its revenues in the United States and half elsewhere, Prince of Persia has so far generated nearly three quarters of revenues overseas.
