Michal Marek A long awaited movie Steve Jobs written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Dany Boyle, had its national premiere in the United States this weekend. Despite high expectations, the film did not make a very good debut on the screen, at least in terms of sales. The film grossed a disappointing $7,3 million in its first weekend, and some journalists have aptly compared this entry to the Power Mac G4 Cube computer fiasco.
An image Steve Jobs it was based on a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and combined with the still fascinating life of Steve Jobs should have been a recipe for success. But the film did not even reach the sales that Sorkin's previous film could boast of after the first week The Social Network about the creation of the Facebook social network. It took 22,4 million dollars in the first two days.
The striking thing is that the new Steve Jobs he did not surpass his own by much unsuccessful predecessor Jobs with Ashton Kutcher. It grossed $6,7 million in its first weekend.
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According to estimates, he had Steve Jobs with a $30 million budget (and at least the same marketing budget) to earn somewhere between $15 million and $19 million in its opening weekend. These optimistic expectations were further bolstered by the film's success in Los Angeles and New York, where the film was shown in a limited capacity two weeks before its national premiere.
In a series of these limited previews, the film was shown on four screens and grossed $2,5 million in those two weeks. This preview even became the fifteenth most successful opening weekend in Hollywood history, earning an average of $130 on each of the four screens.
After the subsequent release of the film in a total of 2 American theaters, great success was expected. However, he did not come, and now there is a lot of talk about the two-year-old decision of the head of Sony, Amy Pascal, who gave up on the film in its early stages in favor of rival Universal. Pascal was worried about the return on investment of the film without the presence of any major star in the cast, as the role of Steve Jobs was first given up by Leonardo DiCaprio and later by Christian Bale. In the end, Irish actor Michael Fassbender became the final candidate, who did not convince this woman of his potential.
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Pascal's move was not well received by many people. The world went crazy with the sharp marketing that Sorkin's film, directed by Boyle, got its eye on, and the film - also thanks to Fassbender's performance - immediately began to be talked about as one of the contenders for the Oscar. But now it looks like Amy Pascal's fears were justified.
The film will probably have a really hard time in the Hollywood market, partly due to the absence of a big acting star. However, the film has more obstacles on the way to success. After all, this is mainly a matter of conversation for a relatively specific audience, among whom will be Apple fans, mainly from the United States. So if the film fails at home, it will have a hard time making up for the loss abroad.
It is possible that a certain share of the failure of the film in its first weekend is also borne by the criticism leveled at the film by Jobs' acquaintances and relatives. Jobs' widow Laurene Powell, Tim Cook and even Steve Mossberg said that the film definitely does not portray the Jobs they knew. Such words could have deterred those staunch supporters of Apple and supporters of Steve Jobs, on whom the creators relied so much.
However, the creators do not give up and want to bring their creation to the limelight. Nick Carpou of Universal's domestic distribution department responded to the initial results as follows: "We are going to continue to support the film in the markets where it shows its strength, and we are going to continue to do so aggressively and actively." In addition, Universal believes that if the film in theaters hold until the Golden Globe and Oscar nominations are announced, it will have a chance for recovery and an open path to profitability. But to get to zero, according to Variety he will have to earn at least $120 million. It's about a tenth so far.
The film will arrive in Czech cinemas Steve Jobs November 12.
A movie about Jobs that doesn't look like Jobs. It's really like making a movie about Lincoln with an actor who has a mustache and is blond, and shaved :(
Catastrophe. We also stole the GUI… What??
I'm not surprised... After Apple finished the design of iOS and OS X, there were no die-hard fans left...