We almost didn’t see “The Apprentice” before Election Day.
Most distributors wanted no part of the anti-Trump feature. President Donald Trump threatened legal action for what he deemed false depictions of him, including a controversial rape scene in the film’s third act.
Before then, A-list directors like Clint Eastwood and Paul Thomas Anderson reportedly passed on the project.
Briarcliff Entertainment took a chance on the finished film which earned an eight-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Turns out that gamble might not pay off.
“The Apprentice” earned just $150,000 at Thursday screenings from 1,750 screens. The latter is roughly half what most mainstream movies receive in their debut frames. It’s enough to make a reasonable amount of coin.
“Am I Racist,” for example, nabbed just under $5 million from a slightly smaller screen count mere weeks ago.
As is, “The Apprentice” may struggle to make $2 million by Sunday. Reviewers mostly raved about the film (77 percent “fresh” at Rotten Tomatoes) but audiences are far from thrilled.
The far-Left Deadline reports the PostTrak data, and it’s ugly: Audiences scored it with 2½ stars and a 45 percent “definite recommend” rating.
Word of mouth may not save the day.
“The Apprentice” stars Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump finding his way through New York’s real estate market. Jeremy Strong plays Roy Cohn, the disreputable fixer who aligned himself with Trump in the mogul’s formative years.
Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan on ‘The Apprentice’: ‘We’re way out on a limb’ (from @AP) https://t.co/hXXiemaHGQ
— Evans Donnell (@EvansDonnell) October 11, 2024
The film starts strong but routinely portrays Trump in the most unflattering ways possible. That includes insinuations he received liposuction and hair transplants and suffered from erectile dysfunction.
The latter may come as a shock to Stormy Daniels.
“The Apprentice” has earned gallons of free cyber-ink in recent weeks. Outlet after outlet reported on the film, director Ali Abbasi and Strong’s Oscar chances. The press coverage proved uniformly positive, with many outlets promoting the film as an awards season darling.
That, apparently, didn’t convince movie goers.
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