Illustrating the limits of star power, “Our Brand is Crisis” and “Burnt” were both roundly rejected by audiences over Halloween weekend despite the presence of Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper, Variety reports.
“Our Brand is Crisis,” a political satire about a spin-doctor navigating a Latin American presidential election, is the worst wide release opening of Bullock’s career, sliding in below “Two If By Sea,” which opened to $4.7 million in 1996. It debuted to a dreadful $3.4 million across 2,202 locations. Warner Bros. distributed the $28 million production and co-financed the film with Participant Media.
“We’re proud of the movie, we had higher expectations and we’re obviously disappointed,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. distribution executive vice president.
Not that Cooper fared much better playing a down-and-out chef trying to score a comeback in “Burnt.” The Weinstein Company distributed the critically scorched dramedy, which made a meagre $5 million bowing across 2,900 theaters. It cost roughly $20 million to make and was directed by John Wells (“August: Osage County”).
“It’s a small film and we didn’t spend a ton of money on it, but we were obviously hoping for more,” said Erik Lomis, the Weinstein Company’s distribution chief. “We love Bradley and he worked so hard on it with John Wells. It’s a passion project that hit a tough weekend.”
It wasn’t just star power at play. The calendar worked against both films. Halloween took place on Saturday, traditionally the busiest day for movie-going, so studios were bracing for a weekend that offered up more trick than treat. Their greatest fears were realized. Overall ticket sales fell below $75 million, the worst results of the year.
The problem might have had something to do with quality. Reviewers didn’t exactly get behind either picture.
“This is a classic dump,” said Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “You look at the new films being offered up and none of them had a lot of marketing support behind them. The studios knew what they had.”
The weakness of “Our Brand is Crisis” and “Burnt” enabled a group of holdovers to maintain their grip on the top spots at the box office. “The Martian” captured first place with $11.4 million. The Fox adventure story is on pace to be the biggest domestic grossing release of Ridley Scott’s career, having made $182.8 million since debuting in October.
Second and third positions went to Sony’s “Goosebumps” and DreamWorks’ “Bridge of Spies” with $10.2 million and $8.1 million, respectively. “Goosebumps” has made $57.1 million in three weeks, while “Bridge of Spies” has been one of the only adult dramas to connect in recent weeks, earning $45.2 million since it debuted last month.
The top five was rounded out by Sony’s “Hotel Transylvania 2” with $5.8 million and Lionsgate’s “The Last Witch Hunter” with $4.7 million. The pictures have made $156 million and $18.6 million, respectively.
