Paramount has sold the Mark Wahlberg summer action flick Four Brothers and The Honeymooners, a comedy released in June starring Cedric the Entertainer, to Turner’s TNT/TBS combo and UPN for airings starting in first quarter 2008.
Paramount fetched a combined price that represents nearly 20% of the films’ domestic box office gross from the two outlets, with Turner putting up the majority of the dollars (since UPN does not have a movie night), sources say.
The two films registered less than stellar performances, grossing around $84 million combined. But Paramount’s percentage of total box office in the high teens beats the 10%-12% that other studios have gotten recently for higher grossing films in the sluggish theatrical movie-buying market.
Paramount also recently sold three other Paramount titles—The Longest Yard (CBS and Turner), Coach Carter (CBS and FX) and Sahara (ABC and Turner)—for similar prices.
Four Brothers, which grossed more than $71 million domestically in its first six weeks of release, is said to be earmarked for TNT for the first six months, then UPN for a year before the windows start alternating between the two.
It’s the reverse for The Honeymooners, which collected less than $13 million domestically during its six-week box office run this summer. UPN gets it first, then TBS.
Paramount also threw in the Bad News Bears into the deal for TBS, but there is no network deal yet.
