New Movie Flops SO BADLY It’s Pulled From Cinemas

Thanks to ‘Jurassic World’, ‘Fast & Furious 7’, ‘Minions’, and ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, Universal Pictures is enjoying a year of unrivalled success at the box office, however two new releases from the studio have massively upset the apple cart.

Both ‘Jem and the Holograms’ and ‘Steve Jobs’ have flopped so hard the studio has taken the unprecedented decision to pull them both from movie theatres across America just weeks after they were released.

‘Jem and the Holograms’, a live action reboot of the hit 1980s cartoon, has been withdrawn from cinemas after taking just $2.1m since October 23.

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Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, explained to Business Insider Monday why this move was so surprising.

“Theater chains are contractually obligated to hold a film for two weeks after booking it. However, in all my days as an analyst, I’ve never seen a studio actually stop reporting after two weeks. This is unprecedented, and shows just how badly this film flopped. Not only is it the lowest-grossing debut for a studio film this year, but it’s the worst all-time — by a considerable margin — for any film released in 2,000-plus theaters.”

The film opened to luke warm reviews and with a budget of just $5m it’s not going to make a big difference to Universal’s year end. The same can’t be said though of Danny Boyles’ ‘Steve Jobs’.

The Michael Fassbender-starring biopic has been pulled from over 2000 cinemas in America after its wide release on October 23. The film has grossed just $16.7m since its initial release against a budget of $30m despite being warmly received by critics. In fact ‘Jobs’, the 2013 Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher in the title role, actually took more money over its first 24 days of release than Boyles’ star-studded effort, which means it could end up costing Universal’s bottom line dearly.

Ouch.

‘Steve Jobs’ is in UK cinemas this Friday and ‘Jem and the Holograms’ arrives on these shores in December.

Image credits: Universal