Natalie Portman's Troubled Western Jane Got A Gun Flops At The Box Office
‘Jane Got A Gun’, the western drama starring and produced by Natalie Portman, has flopped catastrophically at the US box office.
The movie made less than £500 per screen after being released in just over 1200 cinemas in the US over the weekend.
It is by far the worst opening for any film starring the ‘Black Swan’ actress.
Costing $25 million (£17.5 million) to make, the Weinstein-produced movie grossed just $830,000 (£580,000), according to The Hollywood Reporter, below its already fairly measly projections of $1 million (£700,000).
It stars Portman as Jane Hammond, a woman forced to defend herself and her family from a vengeful gang, lead by Ewan McGregor’s John Bishop, turning to her former fiance (Joel Edgerton) for help.
But the production of the movie was turbulent from the start.
It was initially set to be directed by celebrated Scottish helmswoman Lynne Ramsay, however, she failed to turn up on set for the first day of filming.
It later emerged, according to The Hollywood Reporter, that Ramsay had tussled with Portman’s fellow producer Scott Steindorff over delays to production and control of the final cut of the movie.
Prior to Ramsay’s row with producers, Michael Fassbender walked from the project, having previously been cast in Edgerton’s role, due to scheduling conflicts with 'X-Men: Days of Future Past’.
Ramsay then recast Edgerton in the role left vacant by Fassbender, and cast Jude Law as antagonist John Bishop.
After Ramsay quit, Law also left, because he’d reportedly signed on specifically to work with Ramsay.
Ramsay was then replaced by Gavin O'Connor, who directed 'Warrior’, and later Bradley Cooper was lined up to replace Law as the movie’s villain.
Cooper then had to drop out over clashes with 'American Hustle’, with Ewan McGregor stepping in to take his place.
A lawsuit filed against Ramsay by the production for more than £512,000 in damages and fees was later dropped, but not before alleging that Ramsay was ‘repeatedly under the influence of alcohol, abusive to members of the cast and crew and generally disruptive’ and had also ‘failed to adhere to proper safety protocol for handling weapons on set when she pointed a prop gun directly at a camera and, in turn, at the camera crew before first taking proper precautions’.
Ramsay denied all allegations against her at the time.
The film, originally slated to be released in August 2014, was then delayed to February, 2015, then moved again to September.
It’s distributor Relativity Media then went bankrupt, with the Weinstein Company picking it up and setting its January 29, 2016, release date.
But to add to its woes, it’s box office performance was accompanied by generally poor reviews.
Jordan Hoffman in The Guardian said: “The movie isn’t terrible, so it can’t qualify as a hate-watch. It’s just dull.”
Glenn Kenny in the New York Times added: “Whatever feminist angle the film might have once aspired to is lost in its listless shuffle.”
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Image credits: The Weinstein Company
