Disgraced actor Kevin Spacey’s latest film, Billionaire Boys Club, earned a shockingly low $126 on its opening day, Friday.
That is not one hundred twenty-six thousand. It’s one hundred twenty-six dollars for the entire day. The poor box office haul is quite a fall for Spacey’s recent career. Indeed, the film went straight to VOD last month anticipating a tough sell after the actor’s recent notorious personal problems with accusations of sexual harassment and assault.
But the low numbers shocked even those who expected the film to do poorly. As The Hollywood Reporter noted:
Put another way, that’s a per-location average of $12.60, which doesn’t even equal two tickets if going by the current average ticket price of $9.27. For the full weekend, Billionaire Boys Club could have trouble hitting $1,000 — by far the worst showing of a film starring Spacey. Titles that debut first on VOD aren’t generally big draws at the box office, but Billionaire Boys Club is faring particularly poorly.
The film’s distributor agonized over what to do with the film since its release date was to have come after a list of accusations of sexual abuse were lodged against Kevin Spacey. Eventually, Vertical Entertainment decided to release it video on demand (VOD) and then in a limited theatrical run, saying it was “neither an easy nor insensitive decision.”
“We hope these distressing allegations pertaining to one person’s behavior — that were not publicly known when the film was made almost two-and-a-half years ago and from someone who has a small, supporting role in Billionaire Boys Club — does not tarnish the release of the film,” Vertical added. “In the end, we hope audiences make up their own minds as to the reprehensible allegations of one person’s past, but not at the expense of the entire cast and crew present on this film.”
The film opened in smaller venues and smaller cities, as well. The film did not play in major metro areas such as New York or Los Angeles and instead appeared in Minneapolis, Phoenix, the Bay Area, New Orleans, Hartford, Miami, and Sarasota.
The final box office haul for the weekend had not been released as of press time.
Billionaire Boys Club also stars Emma Roberts, Jeremy Irvine, Cary Elwes, Judd Nelson and Billie Lourd in a story based on a real-life incident from Southern California that occurred in the 1980s.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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