By Chris Wright
With a stellar ensemble cast including Tim Roth as Sepp Blatter, Sam Neill as Joao Havelange and Gerard Depardieu as Jules Rimet and a vast production budget, you’d think that there was no way on God’s green Earth that the new FIFA movie, United Passions, could prove to be a box office flop – and lo, here we are.
Costing an estimated $27million to make, United Passions premièred at the weekend and made just $200,000 – meaning that the film is currently running at an approximate loss of $26.8million.
This from ESPN FC:
AP said that when United Passions — which had its world premiere, attended by FIFA president Sepp Blatter and Depardieu, at Cannes in May — was shown at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday, about 120 people paying $22.70 per ticket watched it in a 500-seater cinema.
It reported that, according to film industry data analyst Rentrak, the revenue from that showing would have brought the international box office takings to no more than $200,000.
Rentrak said Switzerland became only the seventh country to screen United Passions in cinemas, with Ukraine the one nation to screen it prior to the summer’s World Cup in Brazil. Brazilian film distributors turned down the opportunity to show it.
AP reported that Russia — where takings were $144,000 — was the main market. It was also screened in Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia and Hungary.
Megalolz.