Steven Spielberg's “The Fabelmans” added another 335 screens this weekend, it was playing in a little less than 1000 screens, but still managed to dip -7% in its 5th weekend by grossing $1.1M.
The film has now made $7M total at the box-office. Universal won't come anywhere close to the $38M domestic “West Side Story” grossed (and that was considered by many to be a “bomb”). “The Fabelmans” has a budget of around $40 million.
I don’t know if these numbers were affected by the fact that “The Fabelmans” will be readily available on VOD this coming Tuesday. What should not have worked against it was the fact that critics loved it, Oscar buzz is still strong and there has been lots of press surrounding Spielberg’s personal story.
I suspect the fact Michelle Williams was the biggest name in the film didn’t help. The story itself is also not the strongest to lure audiences in buying a ticket: a personal statement from a director .. about himself. Regardless, despite the flaws, the movie did deserve a better fate than this.