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Sorkin 'Steve Jobs' movie takes a dive at the US box office
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MacNN Staff
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The latest adaptation of the life of Steve Jobs for the big screen has tanked at the box office, after many theaters decided to drop the movie over the last weekend. Box office figures suggest the film grossed less than $1 million in the last weekend, with the number of cinemas showing the Danny Boyle/Aaron Sorkin movie dropping to approximately a fifth of the previous weekend's number, down 2,072 screens to just 421 across the entire United States.
The figures from Box Office Mojo indicate it has pulled in just $823,000 for the weekend, a drop of 69.4 percent in gross revenue compared to last weekend. It also dropped down from being the tenth highest-grossing film for the weekend to the 15th in its fifth weekend of US availability.
Its $823,000 gross weekend revenue brings the total gross of the Universal film to $16.7 million, just over half its estimated $30 million budget. While this is a disappointment for the movie, Cult of Mac notes it has at least passed the 2013 Jobs movie in terms of total domestic gross.
Speaking at the Deadline Contenders event on Saturday, screenwriter Sorkin spoke out against complaints about the film's accuracy, claiming "I think there's been some confusion about the movie. There's not a fact about Steve Jobs that has been distorted, perverted, or invented, except this: Steve Jobs didn't have confrontations with five people 40 minutes before every product launch. That's a writer's conceit."
"I would say it's not a biopic. When you write a biopic, you land on characters' greatest hits along the way. I didn't want to write a $30M studio version of a Wikipedia page. I've enjoyed traditional biopics in the past and we already know there have been a few on Steve Jobs, as well as a couple of plays, and the Santa Fe Operahouse is doing an opera on Steve Jobs for the 2017 season."
Sorkin also spoke about his access to people close to Jobs compared to the author of the book the film is based on, written by Walter Isaacson. "Talking to all these people, I got the idea to do this movie in three real-time scenes, moments before a product launch and dramatize it." Sorkin claims the facts raised in a conversation about sales projections between Jobs and marketing executive Joanna Hoffman in the film were true, even if the conversation didn't take place. In another aside Sorkin claims he conversed with Steve's daughter, Lisa Jobs, who approved of some embellishments in conversations with her father that made it into the final film.
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my guess: 1) it's been over four years since he died. Interest has waned. 2) there's already been a couple Jobs flicks rushed out. People probably said, "what, another Jobs film? NERDS!"
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Grizzled Veteran
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This 2015 Jobs costs $30 millions to make vs. 2013 Jobs costs $16 millions to make. Both make $16 millions. Sony shouldn't even bother with this one. What a waste. Unless they make it an action flick "Steve Jobs: DOS Killer" like "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters".
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This release, poor as it was, wasn't helped by the fact that many people simply don't go to theaters that often any more. Jurassic World out in June of this year, was their movie for the summer. Star Wars, The Force Awakens, coming out in about a month, is next in line. Compared to either, this Jobs film isn't worth the bother of fighting traffic. Better to wait until it's on Netflix or some other outlet.
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Author of Untangling Tolkien and Chesterton on War and Peace
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Professional Poster
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This movie was made to reassure all the Apple haters that their unjustified hate is justified.
Jobs' wife hated the movie. That says volumes.
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Yeah, I agree w/ Inkling. For me, this type of movie and comedies don't merit any real benefit in seeing in a "big" theater...the visual is not the impact of "Steve Jobs". So why pay the higher cost? It'll still be the same movie, same affect when it comes out on DVD/digital.
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The story is pure fiction and the actor who plays Steve Jobs looks nothing like him. What did they expect???
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Mac Elite
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alansky: did you think Anthony Hopkins looked like Nixon? River Phoenix like Johnny Cash? Jamie Foxx like Ray Charles? Any of the cast members of The Right Stuff like any of the actual astronauts?
Do you even go to movies? A strong physical resemblance is not a requirement -- if you go that route, you get Ashton Kutcher playing Steve Jobs. How'd that work out?
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Charles Martin
MacNN Editor
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Ham Sandwich
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Captain America vs. Steve Jobs
That would make a great popcorn flick, I would pay to see that.
"You're holding it wrong"
(
Last edited by Ham Sandwich; Nov 10, 2015 at 01:05 AM.
)
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Too many hack movies, docudramas, etc. proceeded this. Had they not, I'm guessing it would have done considerably better. I saw the movie, and thought everything about it was done beautifully. Such a shame.
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Or make it Steve vs. Steve (Ballmer vs Jobs) battling inside the "The Matrix" (smartphone).
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The film is good. It will get an Oscar nomination for writing.
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Quit complaining, Sorkin - you wrote a ridiculous screeenplay, distorting Jobs' life, and people rejected your hatchet job. Too bad - quit crying. It may have worked in The Social Network, before people discovered that movie was total bullshit also.
I hope somebody makes a movie of your life, and treats you like you treat others. You're a jerk, and it's time for you to shut up.
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I think the reception that it got, was way more than it deserved. The movie is not at all about Steve Jobs; it's pure fiction, with slight hints at characters who worked for Apple "at some point" not consistent with the timelines of the movie. So nothing about it resembles any part of the truth; whether story or timeline. Therefore it was a total "opportunistic" film, which had nothing to do with Steve Jobs, other than using his name in the title .... that's a real low-ball move. It's a miracle, it's done $16M already.
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I haven't seen this yet, but I find it interesting how fascinated people are with Jobs and to what extent some people want to lionize successful figures. If you asked a bunch people on the street they'd say that Jobs was an inventor, and I've seen comparison between him and inventors throughtout history.
But maybe the lionizing makes people feel better about humanity, maybe looking at lives like Sorkin says he has done where you don't recreate a Wikipedia page inspires people and does good?
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by quebit
I think the reception that it got, was way more than it deserved. The movie is not at all about Steve Jobs; it's pure fiction, with slight hints at characters who worked for Apple "at some point" not consistent with the timelines of the movie. So nothing about it resembles any part of the truth; whether story or timeline. Therefore it was a total "opportunistic" film, which had nothing to do with Steve Jobs, other than using his name in the title .... that's a real low-ball move. It's a miracle, it's done $16M already.
This is my take on it. It's a characterization of Steve Jobs presented as a biography. I've no interest to see it in the slightest. I would be interested in seeing an actual biography of Jobs but not a fictional story with a Jobs-like character. What's the point?
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Originally Posted by msuper69
This movie was made to reassure all the Apple haters that their unjustified hate is justified.
Jobs' wife hated the movie. That says volumes.
The fact that his wife hated it was enough to persuade me not to patronize this movie.
And it seems like Tim Cook's analysis of the movie makes more sense to me now.
Why would Sorkin make a movie which was truthful about Jobs' accomplishments as well as shortcomings? That would probably only appeal to 10% of the market right? As opposed to the 90% who love to hate Apple and Jobs? So give them what they want in the hopes for hefty returns?
I think Mossberg summed it up really well in the vergecast/article on recode, while making comparisons to Citizen Kane.
Ultimately, i fell this movie amounts to slander and character defamation, and i'm glad it failed. (That being said i intrigued by the three-act format (and the use of file-to-digital from one act to the next).
Pirates of Silicon Valley is still my favorite movie regarding the tech industry.
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