Paramount’s musical biopic “Better Man,” which has a CGI monkey portraying British singer Robbie Williams, opened with a miserable $1M from 1,291 venues this weekend. Even in the UK, where Williams is much more popular, “Better Man” failed with a $1.9M opening and $4.7M to date.
We could have just brushed this one off as a failure, and moved on, but “Better Man,” which was independently financed, has a mind-boggling budget of $110M. That’s a ridiculous amount to spend on such a movie. Last year, Paramount acquired it for $25M, and they definitely won’t be making their money back now.
I guess that budget is the direct result of having a CGI character as your lead, and making the rest of the cast human. In case you’re unaware, they decided to have a monkey play Williams in this one. That doesn’t come cheap, and despite some decent reviews, the film is failing to ignite an audience in mainstream theaters.