Dampening the spirits of a lot of Michael Fassbender fans, ‘Steve Jobs’ has bombed at the box-office. Hopes had been incredibly high regarding the movie, and thus, this unexpected blow hits harder.
“‘Steve Jobs’ was too brainy, too cold, and too expensive to make it a success,” says Variety’s Brent Lang.
Nothing sums up the reasons for the failure of the eponymous biopic about Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs than the above statement. Hollywood has proved once again that meaty content is not enough for a film to work.
Despite the lack of physical resemblance, Michael Fassbender had fans excited all over the world for his portrayal of the Apple founder. Post evidence of his acting prowess in films like ‘Twelve Years’ A Slave’, there was not much to doubt about his brilliance for an on screen rendition of Steve Jobs.
However, Fassbender still failed to draw as much attention of the mainstream movie-goers as much an actor like Robert Downey Jr., or Leonardo DiCaprio would have. Incidentally, Caprio, along with Christian Bale, were one of the two actors the role of Steve Jobs was first offered to for the movie. When both of them turned it down for various reasons, Fassbender was approached next.
The film shows an insensitive, emotionally abusive protagonist, distanced and detached from his wife and daughter. For all his technological brilliance, the audience clearly did not prefer to root for a character who was a complete jerk to his family. So while Jobs tackled his God-complex, less and less names were added to his fan-list.
‘Steve Jobs’ debuted to a puny $7.3 million, not too far ahead from the $6.7 million of the Ashton Kutcher starrer ‘Jobs’. The former needs to make at least $120 to make up for the investment cost and cash in on a minimum level of expected profits. It has made $10 million so far.
Despite being critically acclaimed, ‘Steve Jobs’ has failed to strike a chord with the audience, primarily because of a dialogue-oriented script and the lack of a more popular name than Michael Fassbender, speculate Hollywood experts.
Audience’s reaction to ‘Steve Jobs’ have further revealed how precariously balanced films are in Hollywood, with absolutely nothing, not even strong scripts and top-drawer performances by the likes of Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet are a surety of a project doing well. If you have managed to take a look at ‘Steve Jobs’, tell us what you felt in the comments below.
