Source : the age
The new Robbie Williams biopic, Better Man, in which the British pop star is depicted as a CGI chimpanzee, has tanked at the box office in its US opening weekend – more proof that Americans just don’t vibe with the singer who is beloved in the UK and Australia.
It was not the ideal reception for Australian director Michael Gracey’s much-anticipated film. But there have been warning signs: online discourse exploded in the lead-up to the release, with Americans saying on social media they have no idea who the star of the film is – or why he’s being played by a monkey.
International fans have been quick to hit back, uploading a flurry of content to defend the born entertainer and prove his fame, including his surprise appearance on Taylor Swift’s 2018 Reputation tour which nearly lifted the roof off Wembley Stadium.
For most Australians, it’s difficult to imagine someone not knowing who Robbie Williams is. We’ve had a long love affair with the mischievous Brit, and just two weeks ago more than 10,000 fans descended on Melbourne’s Federation Square with just 24 hours’ notice of a free gig, where he received the key to the city.
But the truth is, Williams is no stranger to being shut out of the US. He’s struggled to gain a foothold there for most of his 34-year career.
Robbie Williams is played by actor Jonno Davies as a monkey in the biopic Better Man.Credit: Paramount Pictures
Wait, how bad is the film doing?
Better Man took just US$1 million ($1.6 million) at 1291 venues at its US opening weekend – not a great result for a film with a reported US$110 million ($178 million) production budget.
Admittedly, it was a tough weekend for the film to open, as all box office takings were hampered by the southern Californian fires. Williams was in Los Angeles for the US premiere on January 8, which was ultimately cancelled.
Robbie Williams and wife Ayda Field at the Golden Globes, where Better Man was nominated for best original song.Credit: Getty Images
However, the takings were still small when compared to other films. Golden Globes darling The Brutalist, a 3½-hour-long biopic about a Hungarian Holocaust-survivor architect in the US, earned US$1.38 million from just 68 screens. Den of Thieves 2, a thriller in which Gerard Butler plays a heist-foiling police officer, topped the US box office on the weekend with US$15.5 million from 3008 theatres.
Better Man has fared better internationally, but not by much. The film had grossed just over US$10 million globally on Wednesday.
Of course, biopics like this don’t just live or die on how familiar audiences are with the subject. Another hurdle was the choice to portray Williams as a CGI chimpanzee. It was a directorial decision Williams said made a point of difference in a flooded market – and he always felt like a “performing monkey”, anyway.
For Williams’ fans, this offbeat choice made sense. One TikToker compared the film to the 2000 Rock DJ music video, in which Williams tears off his skin and swings the flopping mass over his head like a lasso before ripping off other body parts.
“The monkey movie is not even the weirdest thing he’s ever done,” they said.
Why did Robbie never crack the US?
The US market is notoriously difficult to break into for any international act, let alone for potty-mouthed larrikin from working-class England who is more entertainer than singer.
He has a sense of humour that is not immediately recognised as such, tells lewd stories on talk shows, doesn’t take himself or anyone else seriously, and is generally cheeky in a way that doesn’t appear to land as well with US audiences as it does with British and Australian ones.
“Robbie was never going to make it [in America]. He has too much about him. Coldplay could crack the US with bland, inoffensive stadium rock, but Robbie, with his demons and his tattoos and his hedonism? Absolutely not, and it’s their loss,” journalist Moya Lothian-McLean once put it.
Williams recently told the media – deadpan – that Better Man would be the film of the century. “It’ll go in order: The Godfather, Better Man,” he said.
But is the movie actually any good?
By almost all accounts, yes! Better Man has a record-breaking 16 nominations at the upcoming Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts awards. And it’s been well-received by audiences, rated 92 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (critics have it at 88 per cent).
Williams staged a free concert in Melbourne to promote his new biopic, which was largely filmed in the Australian city.Credit: Justin McManus
Featuring Williams’ sprawling discography and an epic dance number, Better Man has also been shortlisted for an Oscar for best visual effects, and was nominated for best original song at the Golden Globes.
Our critic wrote the set-pieces have “a transformative energy” and deemed the film an interesting entrant into the canon of musical biopics – “far more unconventional than Bohemian Rhapsody.”
