The Coen brother’s “Hail, Caesar!” didn’t just flop with a paltry $11.4 million opening weekend, according to Box Office Mojo, in the their three-decade career, the well-reviewed Hollywood comedy starring George Clooney represents the worst opening ever for a Coen’s film released in more than 1500 theatres.
Although it is now a pretty low bar, the last time Clooney carried a movie over $100 million was 16 years ago with “The Perfect Storm.” With Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and Matt Damon co-starring, you can’t count the three “Ocean’s” movies, and “Gravity” is a Sanrda Bullock movie with Clooney in a relatively small support role.
Even the marketing geniuses at Disney couldn’t drag Clooney’s “Tomorrowland” over the domestic $100 million finish line last year, and that was a big-budget tentpole based on a brand and directed by Brad Bird.
In a just world, none of this would matter. But we live in a world where the entertainment media pumps up the politically-divisive Clooney up as an actual movie star — as the next Cary Grant, when he is nothing of the kind. Because his politics are correct, people in Hollywood and the Hollywood media love him.
Out here in the real world, he’s just another big-mouthed, left-wing actor.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC