Fifth Estate Heads List of 2013 Movie Flops

WikiLeaks drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch records worst takings-to-budget ratio in past year, says Forbes

WikiLeaks drama The Fifth Estate, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange, has been named the year’s biggest movie disappointments by experts at financial magazine Forbes.

  1. The Fifth Estate
  2. Production year: 2013
  3. Country: Rest of the world
  4. Cert (UK): 15
  5. Runtime: 128 mins
  6. Directors: Bill Condon
  7. Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Carice van Houten, Dan Stevens, Daniel Bruhl, David Thewlis, Laura Linney, Peter Capaldi, Stanley Tucci
  8. More on this film

Bill Condon’s film about the early years of the whistleblowing site was tipped for awards season success prior to hitting cinemas. With the up-and-coming Cumberbatch in the lead, an Oscar-winning director and highly topical theme it had seemed like a shoo-in. But the film bombed with critics and later flopped at the box office. It has so far returned a mere $6m (£3.6m) of its relatively meagre $28m (£17.1m) budget, according to Forbes, a percentage of just 21%.

Cumberbatch need not take the news too harshly: the top 10 of flops assembled by the magazine ahead of the annual Thanksgiving holiday in the US is filled with numerous films featuring well known stars. In second place is the Sylvester Stallonea ction movie Bullet to the Head, which took just $9m (£5.52m) on a budget of $25m (£15.3m), a return of 36%. With Stallone hot property once again thanks to the success of The Expendables movies and 48 Hours’ Walter Hill in charge of the cameras, producers had expected rather better returns.

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