'Doctor Sleep' could be set to lose more than £20 million

Despite endorsement from Stephen King himself and some better reviews than expected, Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, could be in for a rough ride.

According to Deadline, it could be set to lose more than $20 million (just over £15 million) at the box office.

The movie has got off to a worryingly slow start worldwide, having been released last week, making just $14 million in the US over the weekend.

Added to $5.6 million made worldwide, and it's struggled to an opening weekend of less than $20 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

Read more: Doctor Sleep has ‘redeemed’ The Shining for Stephen King

Analysts are saying that if it lands at $100 million by the end of its run, which seems a considerable distance from where it currently sits, it looks set to lose $20 million.

But if it ends more in the region of $80 million, losses could mount up to more like $30 million (£23 million) or more.

The movie stars Ewan McGregor as the adult Danny Torrance, the young boy terrorised by the events of at the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror benchmark.

Read more: Why Stephen King hated The Shining

Even Stephen King recently said that he enjoyed director Mike Flanagan's movie so much that it's mitigated his well-documented dislike of Stanley Kubrick's film.

Meanwhile, polls of US audiences have scored it a B+, with Rotten Tomatoes rating it with 74 percent approval among critics.

But it follows two other bombs for the Warner Bro studio; the adaptation of Donna Tartt's celebrated novel The Goldfinch, which made $9.7 million, and faces a $50 million loss, and Ed Norton's ensemble crime drama Motherless Brooklyn, which has made just $7.5 million.

Luckily, the studio is flushed with profits from Joker.

It now has $1 billion in its sights, from a CGI-light production budget of around $60 million.