Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Wells (2014)

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Wells poster
Theatrical Performance
Domestic Box Office $15,528Details
International Box Office $4,977Details
Worldwide Box Office $20,505
Further financial details...

Synopsis

The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles looks at the remarkable genius of Orson Welles on the eve of his centenary - the enigma of his career as a Hollywood star, a Hollywood director (for some a Hollywood failure), and a crucially important independent filmmaker. Orson Welles's life was magical: a musical prodigy at age 10, a director of Shakespeare at 14, a painter at 16, a star of stage and radio at 20, romances with some of the most beautiful women in the world, including Rita Hayworth. His work was similarly extraordinary, most notably Citizen Kane, (considered by many to be the most important movie ever made), created by Welles when he was only 25. In the years following Citizen Kane, Welles’s career continued to change as he made film after film (some never finished, many dismissed) and acted in other projects often to earn money in order to keep making his own films. Magician features scenes from almost every existing Welles film, from Hearts of Age, (which he made in a day when he was only 18 years old) to rarely-seen clips from his final unfinished works like The Other Side of the Dream, The Deep, and Don Quixote, as well as his television and commercial work.

Metrics

Opening Weekend:$7,130 (45.9% of total gross)
Legs:2.18 (domestic box office/biggest weekend)
Domestic Share:75.7% (domestic box office/worldwide)
Theater counts:2 opening theaters/2 max. theaters, 1.5 weeks average run per theater
Infl. Adj. Dom. BO $20,482

Latest Ranking on Cumulative Box Office Lists

RecordRankAmount
All Time Domestic Box Office (Rank 16,101-16,200) 16,143 $15,528
All Time International Box Office (Rank 27,301-27,400) 27,328 $4,977
All Time Worldwide Box Office (Rank 31,401-31,500) 31,411 $20,505
All Time Domestic Highest Grossing Limited Release Movies (Rank 7,401-7,500) 7,413 $15,528

See the Box Office tab (Domestic) and International tab (International and Worldwide) for more Cumulative Box Office Records.


Movie Details

Domestic Releases: December 10th, 2014 (Limited) by Cohen Media Group
International Releases: July 3rd, 2015 (Limited), released as Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (United Kingdom)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief language, some suggestive images/nudity and smoking.
(Rating bulletin 2348, 11/12/2014)
Running Time: 94 minutes
Comparisons: Create your own comparison chart…
Keywords: Biography, Movie Business, Film Actor
Source:Based on Real Life Events
Genre:Documentary
Production Method:Live Action
Creative Type:Factual
Production/Financing Companies: Cohen Media Group
Production Countries: United States
Languages: English

Compare this performance with other movies…

Domestic Cumulative Box Office Records

Weekend Box Office Performance

DateRankGross% ChangeTheatersPer TheaterTotal GrossWeek
Dec 12, 2014 58 $7,130   2 $3,565   $9,762 1
Dec 19, 2014 68 $1,664 -77% 1 $1,664   $15,528 2

Daily Box Office Performance

Weekly Box Office Performance

DateRankGross% ChangeTheatersPer TheaterTotal GrossWeek
Dec 12, 2014 61 $11,232   2 $5,616   $13,864 2

Box Office Summary Per Territory

Territory Release
Date
Opening
Weekend
Opening
Weekend
Screens
Maximum
Screens
Theatrical
Engagements
Total
Box Office
Report
Date
United Kingdom 7/3/2015 $4,977 13 13 13 $4,977 9/28/2015
 
International Total$4,977 9/28/2015

International Cumulative Box Office Records


Worldwide Cumulative Box Office Records


Full financial estimates for this film, including domestic and international box office, video sales, video rentals, TV and ancillary revenue are available through our research services. For more information, please contact us at research@the-numbers.com.

Documentary Subject(s)

Orson Welles    Himself

Interviewee(s)

Simon Callow    Himself
Christopher Welles Feder    Himself
Norman Lloyd    Himself
Julie Taymor    Herself
Peter Bogdanovich    Himself
William Friedkin    Himself
Elvis Mitchell    Himself
Jonathan Rosenbaum    Himself
Henry Jaglom    Himself

For a description of the different acting role types we use to categorize acting perfomances, see our Glossary.

Production and Technical Credits

Chuck Workman    Director
Charles S. Cohen    Producer
Alice Henty    Co-Producer
Chuck Workman    Editor
John Sharaf    Cinematographer
Tom Hurwitz    Cinematographer
Michael Lisnet    Cinematographer
Patty Sharaf    Sound Mixer
Freddie Clare    Sound Mixer
Tom Bergin    Sound Mixer

The bold credits above the line are the "above-the-line" credits, the other the "below-the-line" credits.

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for May 26th, 2015

May 25th, 2015

Welcome to Me

Wow. It is a summer week on the home market, as there are a ton of summer shows coming out on DVD. Unfortunately, none of them seem like big sellers. The best-selling new release of the week is Seventh Son, which is a terrible sign. The second best is The Nanny: The Complete Series. I don't know how to react to that. As for the best of the new releases, Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Wells (DVD or Blu-ray) is as good as it gets. More...

Per Theater Chart: Holdovers Versus Vice and Vice Versa

December 16th, 2014

Inherent Vice poster

Inherent Vice won top spot on the per theater chart with an average of $65,637 in five theaters. This is the fifth best per theater average for the year, which is much better than expected. Second place went to The Imitation Game with an average of $34,010 in 25 theaters. It still has plenty of room to expand. The final film in the $10,000 club was Wild with an average of $13,198 in 116 theaters. It too has some room to expand, while it has also reached some level of mainstream success. More...

Limited Release: Vice as Nice

December 12th, 2014

Inherent Vice poster

We are deep into Awards season with three major awards nominations already handed out. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of limited releases coming out this week that will be part of Awards Season. Inherent Vice is the biggest release of the week, but its reviews are only good and not great, while there are a lot of great films in theaters at the moment. More...


  1. Summary
  2. News
  3. Box Office
  4. International
  5. Video Sales
  6. Full Financials
  7. Cast & Crew
  8. Trailer

Synopsis

The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles looks at the remarkable genius of Orson Welles on the eve of his centenary - the enigma of his career as a Hollywood star, a Hollywood director (for some a Hollywood failure), and a crucially important independent filmmaker. Orson Welles's life was magical: a musical prodigy at age 10, a director of Shakespeare at 14, a painter at 16, a star of stage and radio at 20, romances with some of the most beautiful women in the world, including Rita Hayworth. His work was similarly extraordinary, most notably Citizen Kane, (considered by many to be the most important movie ever made), created by Welles when he was only 25. In the years following Citizen Kane, Welles’s career continued to change as he made film after film (some never finished, many dismissed) and acted in other projects often to earn money in order to keep making his own films. Magician features scenes from almost every existing Welles film, from Hearts of Age, (which he made in a day when he was only 18 years old) to rarely-seen clips from his final unfinished works like The Other Side of the Dream, The Deep, and Don Quixote, as well as his television and commercial work.

Metrics

Opening Weekend:$7,130 (45.9% of total gross)
Legs:2.18 (domestic box office/biggest weekend)
Domestic Share:75.7% (domestic box office/worldwide)
Theater counts:2 opening theaters/2 max. theaters, 1.5 weeks average run per theater
Infl. Adj. Dom. BO $20,482

Latest Ranking on Cumulative Box Office Lists

RecordRankAmount
All Time Domestic Box Office (Rank 16,101-16,200) 16,143 $15,528
All Time International Box Office (Rank 27,301-27,400) 27,328 $4,977
All Time Worldwide Box Office (Rank 31,401-31,500) 31,411 $20,505
All Time Domestic Highest Grossing Limited Release Movies (Rank 7,401-7,500) 7,413 $15,528

See the Box Office tab (Domestic) and International tab (International and Worldwide) for more Cumulative Box Office Records.


Movie Details

Domestic Releases: December 10th, 2014 (Limited) by Cohen Media Group
International Releases: July 3rd, 2015 (Limited), released as Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (United Kingdom)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief language, some suggestive images/nudity and smoking.
(Rating bulletin 2348, 11/12/2014)
Running Time: 94 minutes
Comparisons: Create your own comparison chart…
Keywords: Biography, Movie Business, Film Actor
Source:Based on Real Life Events
Genre:Documentary
Production Method:Live Action
Creative Type:Factual
Production/Financing Companies: Cohen Media Group
Production Countries: United States
Languages: English

Documentary Subject(s)

Orson Welles    Himself

Interviewee(s)

Simon Callow    Himself
Christopher Welles Feder    Himself
Norman Lloyd    Himself
Julie Taymor    Herself
Peter Bogdanovich    Himself
William Friedkin    Himself
Elvis Mitchell    Himself
Jonathan Rosenbaum    Himself
Henry Jaglom    Himself

For a description of the different acting role types we use to categorize acting perfomances, see our Glossary.

Production and Technical Credits

Chuck Workman    Director
Charles S. Cohen    Producer
Alice Henty    Co-Producer
Chuck Workman    Editor
John Sharaf    Cinematographer
Tom Hurwitz    Cinematographer
Michael Lisnet    Cinematographer
Patty Sharaf    Sound Mixer
Freddie Clare    Sound Mixer
Tom Bergin    Sound Mixer

The bold credits above the line are the "above-the-line" credits, the other the "below-the-line" credits.

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for May 26th, 2015

May 25th, 2015

Welcome to Me

Wow. It is a summer week on the home market, as there are a ton of summer shows coming out on DVD. Unfortunately, none of them seem like big sellers. The best-selling new release of the week is Seventh Son, which is a terrible sign. The second best is The Nanny: The Complete Series. I don't know how to react to that. As for the best of the new releases, Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Wells (DVD or Blu-ray) is as good as it gets. More...

Per Theater Chart: Holdovers Versus Vice and Vice Versa

December 16th, 2014

Inherent Vice poster

Inherent Vice won top spot on the per theater chart with an average of $65,637 in five theaters. This is the fifth best per theater average for the year, which is much better than expected. Second place went to The Imitation Game with an average of $34,010 in 25 theaters. It still has plenty of room to expand. The final film in the $10,000 club was Wild with an average of $13,198 in 116 theaters. It too has some room to expand, while it has also reached some level of mainstream success. More...

Limited Release: Vice as Nice

December 12th, 2014

Inherent Vice poster

We are deep into Awards season with three major awards nominations already handed out. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of limited releases coming out this week that will be part of Awards Season. Inherent Vice is the biggest release of the week, but its reviews are only good and not great, while there are a lot of great films in theaters at the moment. More...

Compare this performance with other movies…

Domestic Cumulative Box Office Records

Weekend Box Office Performance

DateRankGross% ChangeTheatersPer TheaterTotal GrossWeek
Dec 12, 2014 58 $7,130   2 $3,565   $9,762 1
Dec 19, 2014 68 $1,664 -77% 1 $1,664   $15,528 2

Daily Box Office Performance

Weekly Box Office Performance

DateRankGross% ChangeTheatersPer TheaterTotal GrossWeek
Dec 12, 2014 61 $11,232   2 $5,616   $13,864 2

Box Office Summary Per Territory

Territory Release
Date
Opening
Weekend
Opening
Weekend
Screens
Maximum
Screens
Theatrical
Engagements
Total
Box Office
Report
Date
United Kingdom 7/3/2015 $4,977 13 13 13 $4,977 9/28/2015
 
International Total$4,977 9/28/2015

International Cumulative Box Office Records


Worldwide Cumulative Box Office Records


Full financial estimates for this film, including domestic and international box office, video sales, video rentals, TV and ancillary revenue are available through our research services. For more information, please contact us at research@the-numbers.com.