Paramount’s musical biopic “Better Man,” which has a CGI monkey portraying British singer Robbie Williams, opened with a miserable $1M from 1,291 venues this weekend. Even in the UK, where Williams is much more popular, “Better Man” failed with a $1.9M opening and $4.7M to date.
We could have just brushed this one off as a failure, and moved on, but “Better Man,” which was independently financed, has a mind-boggling budget of $110M. That’s a ridiculous amount to spend on such a movie. Last year, Paramount acquired it for $25M, and they definitely won’t be making their money back now.
I guess that budget is the direct result of having a CGI character as your lead, and making the rest of the cast human. In case you’re unaware, they decided to have a monkey play Williams in this one. That doesn’t come cheap, and despite some decent reviews, the film is failing to ignite an audience in mainstream theaters.
Marvel's "Ghost Rider" just hired one of the best cinematographers working today. Linus Sandgren will serve as DP on Shawn Levy's MCU flick, and, most notably, the project will be shot on film.