Sony’s Uncharted movie opened in the US on February 18 following its release in the UK and other parts of the world earlier in the month, and the Tom Holland/Mark Wahlberg action movie has now made more than $139 million worldwide. After outperforming expectations this past weekend, the movie has now made $51 million in the US and $88 million internationally for a global total of $139 million.
Success at that level was enough to give Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman the confidence to say Uncharted is now a “franchise” for the film company going forward. As such, viewers should probably expect a sequel, though the company has yet to flat-out confirm this.
Uncharted cost $120 million to produce, and that doesn’t count marketing expenses, but Rothman said in an email to staff obtained by Deadline that Uncharted “is a new hit movie franchise for the company.” The executive also mentioned how Uncharted has a very, very positive 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (although the aggregate review score from critics was much lower by some measures).
“This marks a great victory for every single division of the company, as the film was our first major production entirely shut down by the advent of Covid, yet we persevered to complete a picture the audience loves and marketed and distributed it with strategic verve worldwide, despite the pandemic,” Rothman said of Uncharted.
Rothman also said the success of Uncharted speaks to the “unmatched cultural power of real movies.”
“On the heels of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, Uncharted is yet another blow to the theatrical naysayers and further proof of the efficacy of our model,” the executive said.
As for an Uncharted sequel, director Ruben Fleischer has already said he wants to return to make another movie and has expressed his desire to put Uncharted 4’s car chase scene in it. Fleischer and Holland are also keen to make a Jak and Daxter movie for PlayStation Productions.
The movie’s success is also bringing up renewed talk about the future of the Uncharted game series. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection released in January, bundling Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy on PS5, but no brand-new entries in the main series have been announced.
