On Sunday, I read headlines about James Cox’s Billionaire Boys Club, a crime drama film that was one of the last projects featuring Kevin Spacey prior to his sexual assault allegations. I saw the number $126 describing the opening day box office and my blood surged until I realized it wasn’t $126 million, but $126 whole dollars. That’s like, what, 10 tickets? In the UK, the film earned £99 on opening day.
The tally for the US box office over the weekend was similarly low, totaling $425.
The number isn’t too surprising, though, as the film was already released on demand in July and only shown in eight cinemas over the weekend. There was also definitely a lack of PR—did anyone actually know it was coming out?
Unlike other Spacey projects like House of Cards or All the Money In the World, the actor wasn’t replaced in the final product through re-writing or re-shoots. The distributor did release a statement where they announced they “fully support victims”, but would still release the film (unlike, say, Louis C.K.’s I Love you Daddy which will likely never be seen) because they “believe in giving the cast, as well as hundreds of crew members who worked hard on the film, the chance to see their final product reach audiences.”
It is unfortunate that the work of other actors and crew members were contaminated by Spacey’s presence. The film also starred Ansel Elgort, Taron Egerton, Emma Roberts, Jeremy Irvine, Thomas Cocquerel, Rosanna Arquette, Cary Elwes, and Judd Nelson. Still, seeing the difference between this and his previous film Baby Driver, which took in 20.5 million opening weekend, is a good sign that Hollywood hopefully won’t be welcoming back Spacey anytime soon.
(via ABC.net, image: Vertical Entertainment)
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