'Billionaire Boys Club' is only picked up for screening in 10 theatres nationwide, but the majority of movie-goers shun the crime drama.
- Aug 20, 2018
AceShowbiz - Kevin Spacey's first film release following his sex assault controversy has fallen flat with audiences in the U.S., making just $126 (£99) on opening day.
Billionaire Boys Club was only picked up for screening in 10 theatres nationwide, but the majority of movie-goers shunned the crime drama upon its launch on Friday, August 17, making it a career low for the embattled actor.
According to The Wrap, box office earnings remained abysmal on Saturday, as its two-day total reached just $287 (£225). Based on the national ticket price average of $9.27 (£7.27), the figures suggest only 31 people paid to check out the real-life crime drama.
The movie is based in 1980s Los Angeles, where a group of guys from wealthy families sets up a get-rich-quick scheme to fund its own lavish lifestyles, only to be conned out of $4 million (£3.12 million) by career criminal Ron Levin, portrayed by Spacey. The old friends soon find themselves turning to murder in a desperate bid to reclaim their money.
Billionaire Boys Club, which also stars Ansel Elgort, Taron Egerton, Emma Roberts, and Suki Waterhouse, was shot in 2015, two years before Spacey's career was derailed by multiple allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour, which first surfaced in October (17).
He was soon fired from his hit Netflix show House of Cards, while filmmaker Ridley Scott promptly cut him from Getty family biopic All the Money in the World, even though it was already in post-production, and replaced him with Christopher Plummer. Reshoots took place in late November (17), just weeks before its December release.
In contrast, production officials at Vertical Entertainment, who had initially shelved Billionaire Boys Club, announced in June that the independent film would be given a video-on-demand release in July, ahead of its theatre opening on Friday.
Although Spacey's personal troubles are likely to have played a part in cinema-goers choosing to stay away from the movie, it also wasn't helped by the scathing reviews from critics, earning it an approval rating of just 13 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Spacey has kept a low profile since the accusations hit headlines almost 10 months ago, when actor Anthony Rapp went public with claims about a decades-old incident with the Oscar winner.
Dozens of other alleged victims have since come forward with similar claims of sexual misconduct against Spacey, leading police in London to open investigations into a number of formal complaints, with three more added to the case load last month.
