Mortal Engines flops at the box office, poised to lose $100 million

The fantasy epic adapts Philip Reeve's 2001 book, about a post-apocalyptic world where cities travel on wheels

Mortal Engines, the Peter Jackson-produced fantasy epic, has bombed at the box office.

The film suffered a disastrous US opening of $7.5m, with a worldwide total of $42.3m, against a budget exceeding $110m. The film is now looking to lose Universal Pictures between $105m and $150m, according to Deadline.

An adaptation of the first of a quartet of fantasy books by Philip Reeve, the film has been heavily framed in its publicity as Jackson's latest brainchild, although it's actually the directorial debut of his protégé Christian Rivers, who has worked closely with Jackson since 1992’s Braindead.

The film is set in a post-apocalyptic world where London is now a vast city motorised on wheels, driving across barren landscapes in search of smaller cities to devour and dismantle for resources.

It follows Hester (Hera Hilmar), an outcast orphan on the warpath, poised to assassinate the man who murdered her parents, Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving), before she’s interrupted by one of his loyal admirers, Tom (Robert Sheehan). After both Hester and Tom are thrown out of the city, their journey back sees both learn some hard truths about the world.

Reeve's Mortal Engines book was originally published in 2001, with Jackson holding onto the rights for roughly a decade before moving ahead with the project in 2016.

Meanwhile, Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody has proven it has legs at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time.

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