‘Ghost in the Shell’ Drops In International Box Office; Studio Blames Whitewashing Controversy

"Ghost in the Shell" continues to receive underwhelming numbers domestically and globally combined, resulting to a drop in ratings at the internal box office. Paramount Pictures blames the flop in numbers to the whitewashing controversy the film faced during production.

"Ghost in the Shell" earned $7.4 million for its second weekend (April 7-9), dropping 61 percent after debuting to over $19 million for its opening weekend. It trailed after DreamWorks Animation's "The Boss Baby," which earned $26.3 million for its second weekend.

"Ghost in the Shell" also ranked lower compared to "Beauty and the Beast," which continues to earn another $25 million. The film's hope in avoiding an international box office flop now lies on its global numbers.

According to Deadline, "Ghost in the Shell" remains top in overseas. China has $21.4 million and the movie is still number one in Japan with $3.2 million. Current numbers land the film with $92.8 million in the international box office out of its $110 million budget.

Experts weigh in on the success of "Ghost in the Shell" in the international box office. According to some industry, the film can still surpass its budget and earn between $150 million and $170 million at the end of the day.

The underwhelming opening weekend number could be due in part to the whitewashing controversy "Ghost in the Shell" faced during production. Paramount Pictures had addressed the poor ticket sales and the film's fate in the international box office in an interview with CBC.

Paramount's domestic distribution chief Kyle Davies blamed the whitewashing controversy for the poor box office hit. He said the studios was hoping for good numbers domestically, but the casting unsurprisingly impacted the reviews. Davies admitted that casting non-Asian stars (Scarlett Johansson and Michael Pitt) for the lead roles greatly affected the fanboys.

"You've got a movie that is very important to the fanboys since it's based on a Japanese anime movie. So you're always trying to thread that needle between honoring the source material and make a movie for a mass audience," he said.