Robbie Williams biopic Better Man hit theaters in United States over the weekend. The movie tells the story of the pop singer and his rise to fame, but replaces him with a digital monkey. It’s an oddball idea that, combined with the singer’s lack of star power over here, seems to have doomed its chances at the box office.
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On January 10, Better Man made the leap to a nationwide theatrical release in the US, after playing in limited screenings, and after premiering in the UK last month. The movie focuses on Robbie Williams, a British pop star who found fame overseas in the band Take That, before going on to have a successful solo career. But instead of a human actor playing Williams, Better Man features a CGI chimpanzee. Nobody in the movie comments about the fact that an ape is front of them, so its likely just an artistic metaphor inspired by Williams stating that he’s always been “less evolved than other people.” And this weird concept seems to have failed.
As reported by Variety on January 12, Better Man opened in the United States at number 14. I didn’t even realize there were 14 movies playing in theaters right now. Yikes. Better Man has only scraped together about $1.1 million from the US and Canadian box office. But hey, Robbie Williams isn’t a star over here—he’s big in the UK, right? So maybe the movie did better over there? Well it did make more money: so far its brought in around $4.7 million. That’s more, but its still a disaster considering this thing cost over $100 million to make. CG monkey-men don’t come cheap!
Given how big a flop this thing was in the UK, and how Williams is mostly famous over there, its unlikely that this biopic experiment will recover its losses in the United States.
I expect Better Man to hit streaming very soon and then we’ll all forget about the weird monkey movie until like 10 years from now when people go, “Hey, remember that monkey movie about that UK pop star?” and I’ll say “Oh yeah,” look it up on Wikipedia, giggle and move on with my day.
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