Yahoo Movies Has Better Man been a success for Robbie Williams?
The musician tells his life story in the movie, but are people tuning in?
Robbie Williams biopic Better Man landed in cinemas not with a bang but with a bit of a whimper, or at least without the uproarious fanfare the singer might have hoped for.
The British musician tells his life story in the movie, from his start with Take That to his stratospheric rise to fame as a solo singer, and the inner demons he battled amidst his struggle with drink and drug abuse. But despite Williams being a huge star in his own right the box office numbers for the biopic tell a very different story.
In the UK the film had a strong showing, earning $1.9m since it was released on Boxing Day, according to Box Office Mojo the second biggest territory for the movie was Australia where it has earned $724k.
Where the movie has struggled to make landfall so far is the US, with the movie earning just $96k since it was given a limited release on Christmas Day. However it is important to note the film will receive a wider release on 10 January, 2025 so its box office numbers may well increase significantly, though whether it will or not is uncertain.
What the film has been able to do well is bring Williams back to the forefront of people's minds, the public are talking about the singer more now than they have done in years. In the US, for example, the film has sparked passionate debate online about why American people should even care about the singer when they don't know anything about him (he was unable to break America at the height of his career).
The singer has reflected on how making a biopic was the only way to "remind people you're here" and prolong his career, and while it might have seen odd for him to be depicted as a CGI monkey in the movie it was also an incredibly smart decision because people can't stop talking about it. The public have been asking themselves why Williams is a monkey ever since it was first revealed, and that is a clever way to drum up interest in the film and differentiate it from other biopics out there.
That being said, has Better Man been a huge success for the singer? Currently it has done okay numbers in the UK box office but nothing extraordinary to write home about. According to World of Reel the film has a budget of $110m, largely because of its use of CGI to depict Williams as a monkey, so is it likely to make back that money? So far it doesn't seem that way, but that doesn't mean it won't.
This isn't the first time that Better Man director Michael Gracey has seen a film be a slow burn success as that's exactly what happened with The Greatest Showman. The musical starring Hugh Jackman became a huge hit but not right away, the film had tough competition with Star Wars: The Last Jedi and earned a disappointing $8.8m in its opening weekend right before Christmas, but then people went to see it — and then they went again, and again.
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Better Man shares a similar story, it came out on Boxing Day with tough competition from family films like Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. So it is well primed to have a similar success story to The Greatest Showman as a slow burn hit.
But The Greatest Showman has something that Better Man does not: universal appeal. The fact that The Greatest Showman wasn't tied to a specific franchise allowed viewers to come into it without any prior knowledge, in that sense it is evergreen in a way that Better Man is unlikely to be.
Better Man's performance in cinemas relies heavily on viewers wanting to look back at Robbie Williams' life and career. To put it bluntly, if film fans don't care about the singer, or don't even know him, then why would they decide to watch a film that tells them all about his life?
It's a shame, because Better Man is a fabulous film on every level. It is deeply touching one moment and hilarious the next, and Williams' ability to be unapologetically himself and share even the darkest part of his past with the public is admirable.
The singer is fearless in a way few others are, and that's what makes Better Man such a compelling watch — it is a triumph of a film and well worth watching. But unfortunately the jury is still out on whether it will be a success for Williams.
Better Man is out now in cinemas.
