White House Down tanks

Less than a month after Will Smith's 'After Earth' crashed at the box office, Sony finds itself in another predicament with Roland Emmerich's 'White House Down'.

The $150 million action thriller, starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx as the president of the United States and a wannabe Secret Service agent who team up after the White House is invaded by terrorists, is the studio’s most expensive film of the summer, posting  disappointing box office receipts - with $9 million on Friday and a projected three-day  haul of $20 million this weekend.

[Jeff Goldblum will return for Independence Day 2]

'White House Down' comes fourth behind Disney's 'Monsters University', 'The Heat' and 'World War Z'.

Not only are the early estimates poor for a project that Sony bought in a record deal for $3 million in 2012, it’s worse than this year’s other White House thriller, 'Olympus Has Fallen', which opened to $30.8 million on a much smaller budget ($70 million).

'White House Down' earned an A- CinemaScore, a good sign in terms of strong word-of-mouth, but simply not enough moviegoers turned out on Friday. It looks the like lowest opening for an Emmerich-directed blockbuster in recent times. In summer 2004, 'The Day After Tomorrow' debuted to $68.7 million. While 'Independence Day' - which also featured the destruction of the White House - opened to $50.2 million in July 1996.

[No Will Smith for Independence Day 2]

Still the No.1 movie, Disney and Pixar's 'Monsters University', took $14.3 million on Friday and  looks to make an impressive $50 million this weekend.

Fox's female-friendly 'The Heat' starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy  ($13.6 million on Friday; expected to earn close to $40 million over the weekend) is in second place. The raunchy R-rated comedy marks another hit for McCarthy and 'Bridesmaids' director Paul Feig.

Costing a modest $43 million to produce, 'The Heat' stars Bullock as a strict FBI agent who is forced to team up with McCarthy's rough-around-the-edges Boston street cop.

Meanhile 'World War Z' rounds out the top 3 with $32 million, dropping only 52% week-to-week.