Fifteen years after its release this week, Immortals remains a fan favourite. The 2011 American epic fantasy action adventure from director Tarsem Singh Dhandwar stars Henry Cavill, Stephen Dorff, Luke Evans, Isabel Lucas, John Hurt, Kellan Lutz, Freida Pinto and Mickey Rourke. It premiered in Los Angeles on November 8, 2011 and opened in the United States on November 11, 2011.
The film is loosely based on the Greek myths of Theseus and the Minotaur, and the Titanomachy. Before it became Immortals, it carried two earlier titles: Dawn of War and War of the Gods.
It became Relativity Media’s biggest opener
Immortals finished the weekend of November 11–13, 2011 at #1 with $32.2 million in North America. That ranked as Relativity Media’s biggest opening weekend to date, against newcomers J. Edgar and Jack and Jill. It had $1.4 million midnight showings and grossed $14.8 million on its opening day, topping the daily box office.
3D drove the weekend
3D showings accounted for a substantial 66% of the weekend gross. The audience was 60 percent male and 75 percent under the age of 35.
Overseas, it opened big from 35 markets
Outside North America, Immortals earned $38 million overseas from 35 countries on its opening weekend. Its highest-grossing territories were Russia, with $8.2 million, China, with $5.7 million, and South Korea, with $4.5 million. All told, the film earned $83,504,017 in the United States and Canada and $143,400,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $226,904,017.
It had two earlier titles before Immortals
The title wasn’t always Immortals. The production incorporated some elements from classical Greek myths, and the film was previously named Dawn of War and War of the Gods before being renamed Immortals.
Cost pushed the film from 3D to 2D
While it was initially intended to be filmed using 3D technology, cost considerations during filming resulted in a pivot to a strategy of filming in 2D and converting after the fact. It was filmed using the Panavision Genesis digital camera.
Tarsem Singh called it Caravaggio meets Fight Club
Director Tarsem Singh described the film as an action film using Renaissance painting styles during development.
“Basically, Caravaggio meets Fight Club. It’s a really hardcore action film done in Renaissance painting style. I want to see how that goes; it’s turned into something really cool. I’m going for a very contemporary look on top of that so I’m kind of going with, you know, Renaissance time with electricity.”
The score, composed and conducted by Trevor Morris, was released on November 8, 2011.
Home video moved 1.2 million units in a week
Immortals was released on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and Blu-ray 3D on March 5, 2012 in the United Kingdom and on March 6, 2012 in the United States and Canada. In its first week of release, Universal Studios Home Entertainment sold more than 1.2 million units of the film, making it the week’s #1 film in Home Entertainment. It sold 648,947 DVD units and 926,964 Blu-ray Disc units for the week ending March 11, 2012.
Critics split, but the look made year-end lists
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 139 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 46 out of 100, indicating mixed or average reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, writing that Immortals is “without doubt the best-looking awful movie you will ever see.” The film nevertheless appeared on several year-end lists, including MTV’s honorable mention, Guy Lodge’s top twenty for HitFix, and Saturn Award nominations including Best Fantasy Film.
Which Immortals fact stays with you — the record opening, the 3D conversion pivot, or Tarsem Singh’s Caravaggio-meets-Fight Club pitch?
Facts from Wikipedia: Immortals (2011 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.