Benedict Cumberbatch is a rising star. His spectacular spin on the famous detective Sherlock Holmes on the BBC drama Sherlock catapulted Cumberbatch into stardom and allowed him to start branching into film. His fan base, lovingly christening themselves “Cumberbitches,” seem to hang on his every word and promote any and all things Cumberbatch without question.
Where then were the Cumberbitches this weekend as Benedict’s new movie The Fifth Estate opened with the worst weekend box office for a film opening in over 1,500 screens in all of 2013?
To give you an idea of how bad this is, remember the crappiest mainstream film you saw or heard of this year and then realize that dreck had a better weekend at the box office than The Fifth Estate.
Ouch, right?!
The film brought in a piddly $1.7 million this weekend, and even though it only cost $26 million to make, the chances of it making its money back now seem grim. The film had received fair to mixed reviews and Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange himself (whom Cumberbatch portrays in the film) had openly dismissed the film. The only heat this movie had was in Cumberbatch’s star power and even that failed to deliver. Perhaps a release earlier in the year could have spelled success for the film. Maybe pushing it back into early 2014 when most studios are dumping their garbage could’ve been made the film a winner, but when dropped into a pool of Oscar bait what chance did it ever even have?
Not everything is bleak in the land of Cumberbatch however, as his other film this weekend, 12 Years a Slave (still in limited release) opened to strong numbers and a fair bit of Oscar buzz.
So are any of you going to go see The Fifth Estate, or have you already decided to give it a pass? Let us know in the comments below!
Via EW.com
