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UPDATED: More than a third of the film's opening-weekend audience was over the age of 50, despite a star turn from 33-year-old actor Chris Pine.

The fate of Paramount's marquee spy franchise has been thrown into question following the soft debut of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit at the North American box office, where the action thriller failed to connect with younger audiences unfamiliar with author Tom Clancy's iconic character.
Director Kenneth Branagh's reboot, starring 33-year-old actor Chris Pine and in a bid to relaunch the series, opened to a soft $18 million over the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. More than a third of the audience was over the age of 50, while only 15 percent was under 25, according to exit-polling service CinemaScore. All told, 63 percent of the audience was over the age of 35.
Movies fueled largely by older adults can certainly transform into box office hits -- consider Gravity or Taken, although they feature older actors in the lead roles -- but the Jack Ryan franchise has always been an all-audience play. And by casting Pine, the studio hoped to ignite interest among the younger set.
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Whether the studio and co-financing partner Skydance Productions decide to pursue another installment now largely rests on Jack Ryan's performance overseas, where it is off to a solid start, as well as its ability to drum up continued interest among older adults in the U.S., sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
Adds Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore: "The affection for the franchise was definitely 50-plus. The young audience didn't turn out for the opening weekend. The question now becomes, does a younger audience now discover it, whether in theaters or on home entertainment?"
Last year, Paramount's Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters topped out at a disappointing $55.7 million domestically, but earned $170 million internationally for a global total of $225.7 million, enough to pursue a sequel. In North America, Jack Ryan may only hit Hansel and Gretel numbers unless it has strong legs. Sunday's football championships didn't help the film, as older males were its core audience.