The Fifth Estate has worst opening weekend of the year

WikiLeaks movie 'The Fifth Estate' has had a disastrous opening weekend, the worst of the year so far for a film released on over 1500 screens.

It made just $1.7 million (£1.05 million) across 1769 theatres across the US - just under $1000 (£618) per screen.

“We're disappointed with these results,” said Dave Hollis, Disney's distribution chief.

The movie, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the whistle-blowing site's founder Julian Assange, has been at the centre of a war of words between the filmmakers and Assange himself.

[How real are Hollywood versions of recent news stories?]

In response to the movie, WikiLeaks offered up its own film this weekend, a free download of the documentary 'Mediastan'.

“This weekend instead of wasting your time and money on Hollywood propaganda, why not get all your friends around and spend your time watching 'Mediastan' instead?” said Assange in a statement.

The documentary, produced by Assange, depicts the release of WikiLeaks cache of American diplomatic cables earlier this year to The Guardian and the New York Times.

The Hollywood Reporter cites sources close to the film that say the US market, and notably the conservative states, has no interest in either Assange or WikiLeaks.

Assange has been fiercely critical of the film itself, calling the book that it's based on, by his former spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg, 'toxic'.

[Cumberbatch: Assange asked me to reconsider WikiLeaks role]

After refusing to meet Cumberbatch in person, he wrote to the actor, telling him: “I believe you are a good person, but I do not believe that this film is a good film.

“Feature films are the most powerful and insidious shapers of public perception, because they fly under the radar of conscious exclusion. This film is going to bury good people doing good work, at exactly the time that the state is coming down on their heads. It is going to smother the truthful version of events, at a time when the truth is most in demand.

“As justification it will claim to be fiction, but it is not fiction. It is distorted truth about living people doing battle with titanic opponents. It is a work of political opportunism, influence, revenge and, above all, cowardice. It seeks to ride on the back of our work, our reputation and our struggles.”

Check out another clip from the film below...