Emma Watson's new movie Colonia has bombed at the box office.
Emma Watson's new movie Colonia has bombed at the box office.
Emma Watson's new flick The Colony pulled in a measly £47 (NZ$85) in its opening weekend at the UK box office.
In the flick, Watson stars as a woman who tries to infiltrate a cult to save her husband (Daniel Brühl).
While the distribution strategy behind the film relied on home-streaming, when it became available online on Friday it was also released at three cinemas in the UK.
And although that's a very limited theatrical release, making just $85 at the box office over a whole weekend is still a rather shocking figure.
"The leads are given the thankless task of maintaining grim poker faces through scene after scene of high contrivance and cliche-ridden dialogue," critic Dennis Harvey wrote in Variety.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote the script was "steeped in genre cliches from start to finish" and observed the use of the English "as the main language in a place where everyone speaks either Spanish or German" is unbelievable.
While it's true what New York Times critic Neil Genzlinger wrote - that Watson "is still in need of a role that will propel her to the next acting level" - the former Harry Potter star shouldn't stress too much.
There's been a bunch of A-listers whose movies have raked in equally disappointing amounts at the UK box office.
Morgan Freeman
Last year, Morgan Freeman's thriller Momentum made just $79.93 over it's opening weekend in the UK. Made on a $30 million budget, it had a limited release across 10 cinemas and, like Watson's bomb, was also simultaneously released as a digital download. While this could have affected its performance, the bad reviews didn't help, with The Guardian writing Morgan Freeman "quite literally phones in his performance".
Uma Thurman
While not as bad as Watson's latest outing, the Uma Thurman-lead Motherhood took just $153 at the British box office on its opening weekend. Co-starring Minnie Driver and Jodie Foster, the 2009 flick about modern parenting in New York was meant to be an independent, edgy comedy, but was instead slammed as "contrived" and "cliched".
As The Telegraph noted at the time, producers thought only allowing one British cinema to launch the movie would create buzz and lead to success. Sadly, $153 in its opening weekend didn't come close to covering its small $4 million budget.
Keanu Reeves
The action star's new film Exposed flopped spectacularly in its opening weekend in the UK this year, making a paltry $168.
The crime thriller was only screened in five cinemas. The terrible figure means it made $33.39 per theatre, roughly the price of two adult tickets.
The movie was plagued by trouble during production, with original director Gee Malik Linton eventually battling to have his name removed from the film's credits.
Not even two Hollywood heavyweights could save the thriller Misconduct, which pulled in just $189 when it opened across five British cinemas this year.
While it did a little better in the US - where it clocked up $32,195 before disappearing from cinema screens - poor reviews and little audience interest meant there was little chance of breaking even on the $14.7 million budget.
Interestingly, the flick enjoyed the most success in South Korea where it made $1.2 million, probably because it features South Korean actor, Byung-hun Lee.
