The ensemble crime-drama — also starring
Ansel Elgort and
Taron Egerton — marks a career box-office low for the disgraced Spacey after premiering first on VOD.
Disgraced actor
Kevin Spacey is enduring a career low at the
box office this weekend.
The ensemble crime-drama
Billionaire Boys Club quietly opened Friday in 10 theaters scattered in select states across the U.S. The indie film earned an abysmal $126 for the day, following its release on premium VOD last month, according to those with access to theater grosses.
Put another way, that's a per location average of $12.60, which doesn't even equal two tickets if going by the current average ticket price of $9.27. For the full weekend, Billionaire Boys Club could have trouble hitting $1,000 — by far the worst showing of a film starring Spacey. Titles that debut first on VOD aren't generally big draws at the box office, but Billionaire Boys Club is faring particularly poorly.
Ansel Elgort and Taron Egerton share top billing in Billionaire Boys Club, followed by Spacey. Emma Roberts, Jeremy Irvine, Cary Elwes, Judd Nelson and Billie Lourd also star in the movie, which is based on the real-life club of the same name that made headlines in Southern California in the 1980s. Spacey plays real-life Beverly Hills high-roller Ron Levin.
The fate of the film was left in serious question after Spacey was accused last fall of sexual assault by a number of men in the U.S. and England. Netflix and MRC fired him from House of Cards, while Ridley Scott replaced Spacey in All the Money in the World.
Earlier this summer, distributor Vertical Entertainment said it would go ahead and release Billionaire Boys Club on VOD and in cinemas. In a statement at the time, Vertical said it was "neither an easy nor insensitive decision."
"We hope these distressing allegations pertaining to one person’s behavior — that were not publicly known when the film was made almost two-and-a-half years ago and from someone who has a small, supporting role in Billionaire Boys Club — does not tarnish the release of the film," Vertical said. "In the end, we hope audiences make up their own minds as to the reprehensible allegations of one person’s past, but not at the expense of the entire cast and crew present on this film."
Billionaire Boys Club isn't playing in either Los Angeles or New York. Instead, the 10 theaters are in the Bay Area, Phoenix, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New Orleans, the Hartford/New Haven area and Miami and Sarasota, Florida.
The movie's top gross on Friday — $45 — was earned at the Metro Movies 12 in Middletown, Connecticut, followed by the AMC Sundial in Sarasota with $19. Only $9 was generated at the AMC Deer Valley 16 in Antioch, California. That could mean only one person showed up at the Deer Valley cinema; ditto for the Lakeville 21 in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, where the film earned $10 on Friday.