'Steve Jobs' Movie Bombs

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Are any of you really wondering why the latest Steve Jobs movie bombed? It has nothing to do with reviews, director or the acting, it's the fact that there have been several terrible movies like this already. I bet it will do great on rental.

After racking up the year’s best per-screen average in its opening weekend and doing strong business in limited expansion, “Steve Jobs” hit a stumbling block in its national release. It debuted to a measly $7.3 million, only a little more than the $6.7 million that “Jobs,” a critically derided film about the iPhone father with Ashton Kutcher, made in its initial weekend. Going into the weekend, some tracking suggested that the picture would do as much as $19 million.
 
The RDF has been failing for a while now. I'm more surprised so many people went to see a movie about a corporate asshole that happened to be a great salesman.
 
There was literally just a high-profile movie about Steve Jobs and it's not like he's been gone all that long. Seems awfully quick to release 2 movies about the same (recently deceased) person. This one might be 10x better, but it's still a bad idea.
 
Probably because it didn't come with an exclusive printout of how to properly hold your iphone.
 
I saw an article in Variety on this ... they attributed it to several factors which others have mentioned:

- two much previous information (crappy previous movie, book, etc)
- this is very Silicon Valley insider focused which makes it of less interest to folks outside those industries (definitely limits the worldwide interest)
- dialog driven drama (those always tend to have a limited audience including much less international interest)
- no big name star (although Fassbinder reportedly did a good job with the role he is hardly a big name draw)
- bad timing (unlike the Social Network movie which released when Facebook was peaking, this is coming out after the Steve Jobs focus is on the wane)

That said it could get a little bump if the Oscars go to town on it. Also, these kind of dialog movies sometimes do better on video than in theaters. Personally I think the expectations for this movie were overblown from the start.

On a different note it will be interesting to see if the new Star Wars movie can meet its enormous expectations (600 million on opening week)
 
I bet if they spread the cost of the ticket over 24 months and offer a $5.00 cash trade for a ticket stub from the last Steve Jobs movie they would have made millions. ;)
 
On a different note it will be interesting to see if the new Star Wars movie can meet its enormous expectations (600 million on opening week)

I don't know about the 600 million figure, but I was just at a Target store, and there was Star Wars merchandise *everywhere*.
 
I'll wait til it's on Netflix and then scroll past it.
 
It's an entertaining movie. Michael Fassbender does a great job. Has about 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.
 
I didn't know it was out already. Not that I'm going to watch it, but I might pick it up on rental. Looks like it may be a decent movie. I didn't watch the Kutcher one, though. Doubt I will.

It's like other movies - Armageddon/Deep Impact, Red Planet/Mission to Mars, etc.. Just similar movies coming out at the same time. This one is too similar to the other. Not a fan of Jobs, either. I just don't care.
 
Oscar nominations would penalty do wonders for this movie.

Otherwise this is a rental type movie, just too soon to release something like this IMO.
 
They need to triple the cost of movie tickets so that those who attend can tell themselves how elite they are for having paid that much for a mediocre movie.
 
I saw it Saturday night with my wife, and I understand why it is struggling. I think it is very well acted and has great dialog, but it doesn't make Steve Jobs a very likable character. It focuses primarily on the hour before three product launches, and I am not sure how many audience members care about the stress that goes into a product launch. His interaction with his daughter (and her mother) is the other focus of the movie, and that is pretty rough as well.

I haven't seen any other Steve Jobs movies, so maybe this one wanted to stand out by focusing on these three big moments instead of his whole life and death (though there are flashbacks to other times). I was hoping for more of his life story than what was presented.

If you like a lot of dialog and intense, stressful situations, you will probably like this movie. If you want to know how the iPhone and iPad were developed, they aren't even in this film.
 
It should have been direct t DVD/Direct to Rental.

Who the frack is gonna go to a theater these days to overpay and see a slow, quiet drama movie like this?

The only thing theaters are good for any more are the big noise, big explosion action films. Anything else is just as good viewed in the living room.

He's right. I think it will do in rental/DVD.
 
I was thinking it might be a decent netflix/prime video to watch but probably wouldn't put my wife through it. More or less something I would watch on the second monitor while doing something else.
 
This just isn't the kind of movie that people go out on a Friday Night to see, this is a "Wait for Streaming" type of flick, and I think the numbers reflect that. This was never a "people will line UP to see it!" movie, especially when they realized it's a sort of 3 part act play, and isn't a biography. It's unique, the kind of movie that wins awards, not the kind that makes a fortune.

But they are also saying all the movies are bombing right now so there are probably environmental effects....Fair Season in the North East, changing leaves in the same location, bad rain in the SouthWest...all this stuff contributes.
 
Can't be a hit unless there's lots of things blowing up, and hundreds of guys firing machine guns and not hitting nuttin. Besides that. He's only been dead a short time. Pretty much everybody knows who he was and what he did, and that he was generally a prick. So why watch the movie? We all know the end, whether it's in the movie or not. He dies. Hope that wasn't a spoiler for anyone. Now what apple should have done, is make his voice the voice of the phone.
 
The story of Jobs is no doubt fascinating but only for certain people. They should have only made one movie and they should have waited a few years before making it, get it right. I will definitely rent this. I just watched Halt and Catch Fire and I'm thirsty for more of the same.
 
They lost my interest when it was revealed that a lot of the drama was made up. Yes I know that real life is not all that interesting and that it isn't a documentary, but something about watching a fake movie about Steve Jobs seemed pointless.
 
I saw it Saturday night with my wife, and I understand why it is struggling. I think it is very well acted and has great dialog, but it doesn't make Steve Jobs a very likable character. It focuses primarily on the hour before three product launches, and I am not sure how many audience members care about the stress that goes into a product launch. His interaction with his daughter (and her mother) is the other focus of the movie, and that is pretty rough as well.

I haven't seen any other Steve Jobs movies, so maybe this one wanted to stand out by focusing on these three big moments instead of his whole life and death (though there are flashbacks to other times). I was hoping for more of his life story than what was presented.

If you like a lot of dialog and intense, stressful situations, you will probably like this movie. If you want to know how the iPhone and iPad were developed, they aren't even in this film.


It should have been a made for TV movie which they made years ago. Not sure why we needed yet another jobs movie. The guy was a great technology genius but awful human being. People know this and don't need to spend 50 bucks to see it again.


I think it's time they let Steve RIP and move on.
 
I haven't seen any other Steve Jobs movies, so maybe this one wanted to stand out by focusing on these three big moments instead of his whole life and death (though there are flashbacks to other times). I was hoping for more of his life story than what was presented.

Oh... I thought it went deeper than that. Maybe I won't be watching this one. I was hoping for more of a "Pirates of Silicon Valley" type of thing, where you get the life story. Dramatized, of course (it's the movies), but could be like a documentary as well...

I don't like explosions, I don't like super hackers breaking into the Gibson (although, I did like that movie regardless of how fake and over the top it was). Are there any somewhat tame, slow, biographical movies/shows about Steve Jobs that are somewhat accurate? Book, even? Without being like a book about the God known as Steve Jobs? I want something a bit less biased that can show how great he was at some things, but a complete ass hat at others.
 
Pirates of Silicon Valley was better, but it was not just about Jobs. Is it fair to mention it here then? :)
 
Saying it bombed is kinda incorrect. This is a rather small film with a budget of like 30 million. It'll more than make it's money back come award season.
 
Does it cover the parts of his life where he let his own daughter live in poverty?

How about how he scammed his business partner by lying about how much money they made in sales?

Fuck Steve Jobs. He may have been financially rich, but his humanity was bankrupt.
 
I've heard talk about Fassbender getting an Oscar nod for this movie.

I'm going to go see it this week. I'm a fan of Kate Winslet, Michael Fassbender, Aaron Sorkin, and Danny Boyle.
 
Does it cover the parts of his life where he let his own daughter live in poverty?

How about how he scammed his business partner by lying about how much money they made in sales?

Fuck Steve Jobs. He may have been financially rich, but his humanity was bankrupt.
I'm pretty sure they cover the first question. Not sure about the second, though. It does seems like this particular film isn't making his life out to be deific, which is why I'm actually interested.
 
The Ashton Kutcher version, which portrayed Steve Jobs in a good, albeit, fake light, had appeal to the mob of Apply fanboys (and girls).
There is not a similarly sized market of people who despised or wanted to actually know who Jobs was to justify this movie's appeal. Surprised it still did so well, I'm thinking a lot of Apple fans, in typical Apple fashion, went to see the movie as soon as they found out Steve Jobs was in it.
 
Pirates of Silicon Valley was better, but it was not just about Jobs. Is it fair to mention it here then? :)

Not so much as a direct comparison, more of the style. Dramatized history. Mostly accurate.
 
The Ashton Kutcher version, which portrayed Steve Jobs in a good, albeit, fake light, had appeal to the mob of Apply fanboys (and girls).
There is not a similarly sized market of people who despised or wanted to actually know who Jobs was to justify this movie's appeal. Surprised it still did so well, I'm thinking a lot of Apple fans, in typical Apple fashion, went to see the movie as soon as they found out Steve Jobs was in it.

Exactly. Original movie, pulls Apple fan crowd. Anti-Jobs movie doesn't pull that crowd and the rest of us are left thinking "why is there another movie about this?"
 
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