Box office
Gulliver's Travels grossed $42.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $194.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $237.4 million. [5] Produced on a budget of $112 million, [5] [6] the film was a box-office failure in North America, though it faired significantly better internationally.
In the United States and Canada, Gulliver's Travels opened on December 25, 2010. It grossed $3.4 million on its first day, in 2,546 theaters, with an average of $1,346 per theater, ranking at fifth place behind The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader . [17] It finished the weekend with $6.3 million, having grossed an additional $2.8 million on Sunday, with an average of $1,130 per theater, and finished at seventh place behind The Fighter , for a decline of -16%. [18] [19] Between Monday and Tuesday, it grossed $5.6 million, [20] [21] and grossed an additional $6.2 million between Wednesday and Thursday, in 2,993 theaters. [22] [23] In its second weekend, it grossed $9.3 million in 3,089 theaters during the 2011 New Year's, with a combined average of $3,009 per theater; it ranked at eighth behind Tangled . [24] The film ended its domestic box office run on April 7, 2011, with a total of $42,779,761.
In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Gulliver's Travels' highest-earning markets included: the United Kingdom ($24.7 million), Spain ($11.5 million), Germany ($10.1 million), France ($6.5 million), Italy ($5 million), Poland ($2.3 million), Austria ($2.1 million), the Netherlands ($1.6 million), Switzerland ($1.3 million), the United Arab Emirates ($1.2 million), Sweden ($1.2 million), and Belgium ($1 million). [25] In Latin America, its highest-earning markets included: Mexico ($11.6 million), Brazil ($8 million), Colomboa ($2.4 million), Argentina ($2.3 million), Peru ($1.9 million), and Venezuela ($1.7 million). [25] In the Asia Pacific, its highest-earning markets included: Japan ($18.9 million), Russia ($17.1 million), Australia ($16.2 million), South Korea ($14.5 million), Hong Kong ($4 million), Malaysia ($3.6 million), Singapore ($2.4 million), Philippines ($1.9 million), and New Zealand ($1.6 million). [25]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 19% of 119 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.10/10.The website's consensus reads: "Though Jack Black is back doing what he does best, Gulliver's Travels largely fails to do any justice to its source material, relying instead on juvenile humor and special effects."" [12] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 33 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. [26] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. [27]
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter commented that "any sense of fun slowly drains away as the movie insists on highlighting effects over character and story," [28] while Time Out gave it 2 out of 5 stars, commenting that the film "veers between the very mildly chucklesome and plain not funny." [29] The Wall Street Journal called it "a movie of such stupendous uninspiration" that it was "monumentally dreadful," [30] and the San Francisco Chronicle called it "cute" but "sleep-inducing." [31] Slant Magazine rated the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, [32] and Empire rated 2 out of 5 stars, calling it "a low-grade comedy that'll have Jonathan Swift turning in his grave." [33]
Conversely, Roger Ebert commented that knowing whom the film is for, and whom it is not for, might help viewers appreciate it. He awarded the film three out of four stars. [34]
Emily Blunt has openly slighted the film, especially since she was forced to turn down the role of Natasha Romanoff in Iron Man 2 for it. While promoting The Fall Guy , Ryan Gosling brought up Gulliver's Travels, causing Blunt to respond, "We do not talk about that film." [11]
