The film may be based on funny cartoons, but the box office result was a drama for “Speed Racer.”

The Wachowski Brothers’ colorful version of the cartoon series only grossed $18.6 million this weekend, according to Sunday’s estimates, which is a terribly sad result for a movie that cost at least $100 million and that Warner Bros. was confident about. Projections Sunday estimated earnings of $20.2 million, but it was too high a sum for the movie to reach.

“Speed Racer” earned less than half of what many Hollywood critics thought it would earn during its premiere weekend, failing to beat out Fox’s “What Happens in Vegas.” Some thought the poor reviews the film got were the cause of its failure, others linked the bad box office result with the fact it was Mother’s Day last weekend.

According to E! Online, box office experts from Box Office Mojo predicted the film would be lucky to earn at least half of its production budget from its domestic run.

"It should be a struggle to pass the $50 million line," Box Office Mojo’s Brandon Gray said, according to E! News.

It seems “Iron Man” crushed its competition, grossing more than $51.2 million at the weekend box office, a bit higher than Paramount’s prediction of $50.5 million.

An advertisement running on television this weekend, encouraging moviegoers to take their moms to see “Speed Racer” for Mother’s Day apparently was not at all successful. Mothers would rather watch a film starring good-looking and freshly-returned-on-screen Robert Downey Jr. instead. And anyway, high-speed races are not their favorite element in a film…