Kevin Spacey’s first movie since multiple people came forward with sexual assault allegations against the actor made just $126 (£98) at the box office on its opening day.
Despite being buoyed by an all-star cast – including Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver), Taron Egerton (Kingsman), Emma Roberts (TV’s American Horror Story), and Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) – Billionaire Boys Club landed the abysmal Friday opening from 10 cinemas in America.
The box office total (which translates to around 13 tickets being sold), marks Spacey’s lowest grossing movie opening yet. The movie looks likely to make around $1,000 (£784) over the course of the weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter, making for Spacey’s career low.
Billionaire Boys Club was made available on VOD a month earlier, something that usually leads to a lower box office gross, but analysts note that this opening has been particularly poor.
The project’s fate remained unclear following the accusations of sexual assault made against Spacey in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal that rocked Hollywood last year. Many producers worked swiftly to remove the disgraced actor from their projects, namely Netflix who fired him from House of Cards and Ridley Scott who replaced his scenes with Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World.
Indie distributor Vertical Entertainment – the company behind recent John Travolta release Gotti – announced the release earlier this year. They argued that the ensemble cast should not be penalised because of Spacey’s actions, a decision they stated was “neither easy nor insensitive”. The actor’s role is said to be one of the smaller roles in the movie.
Despite pouring water on the level of his appearance, Vertical has given the actor star billing in a brand new international trailer, which you can watch above.
