Have you ever heard of a star-driven movie that grosses on its opening weekend only $141?
My assistant just brought to my attention the following curio item from Variety:
Over three days, Misconduct, a legal thriller starring two acclaimed Oscar winning actors, Al Pacino and Anthony Hopkins, managed to gross $141 at the box office in Britain over the weekend, according to Rentrak Tuesday.
The movie was shown at five locations in Britain, in theaters belonging to the Reel Cinemas chain. Its takings averaged less than $30 per movie house, which amounts to only three or four viewers at each of the five cinemas.
Directed by Shintaro Shimosawa, the film centers on a young lawyer (Josh Duhamel) who goes after a corrupt pharmaceuticals executive (Hopkins) but who also must deal with one of his law firm’s partners (Pacino).
Misconduct, which cost $11 million, made a similarly fleeting gross In the US in February, grossing $15,000 during its opening weekend, earning a total of about $24,000.
Go figure: In South Korea, by contrast, the film grossed more than $900,000 at the box office.
Critics in Britain slammed the film–one declared it “the worst film Anthony Hopkins and Al Pacino have ever made” and another calling it worthy of being screened in film schools “as a textbook example of how not to make a movie.”
Directed by Shintaro Shimosawa, the film centers on a young lawyer (Josh Duhamel) who goes after a corrupt pharmaceuticals executive (Hopkins) but who also must deal with one of his law firm’s partners (Pacino).
The movie, which was distributed in Britain by Bulldog, is slated to play in Italy (June 15), France (August), and Portugal (September).
It will be interesting to see how well Misconduct does in those territories.
