After its mixed response at Cannes, George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing“ was obviously going to underperform at the box-office. Wasn’t this the movie Variety’s Clayton Davis swore could be a Best Picture contender after seeing it on the Croisette?
Miller took a big swing and it didn't pay off. Is anyone really to be blamed for this fiasco? After “Mad Max: Fury Road,” there wasn’t a distributor in the world that wouldn’t work with Miller. I guess you can, technically, blame the director himself for making such an underwhelming movie, which I called a “misfire” this past May at Cannes.
Given the lack of product this weekend, MGM decided to open Miller’s genie romance in 2,436 theaters. The result is going to be a 3-day weekend opening of $2.9 million, this on a $60 million budget. That’s what you call a box-office bomb.
Fact of the matter is that “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, received middling reviews. There was just no way around it. These days, for an arthouse movie to be successful at the box-office, you need great reviews.