Steve Jobs director lashes out at ‘hindsight experts’

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Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs.
Michael Fassbender's Steve Jobs takes a quick glance at the box office figures.
Photo: Universal Pictures

The new Steve Jobs movie has bombed at the box office — but director Danny Boyle thinks the failure has nothing to do with the movie he made, but rather the decision to open it nationally too quickly.

“We did brilliantly the first two weekends,” he said. “Then [the studio] went too wide too soon, and that’s a mistake. But hindsight experts are always around on Monday mornings.”

Boyle says that, as a filmmaker, “You try and make complex films, not simplistic films.” He also praises the movie’s actors, saying that:

“I’ve been very lucky to be involved with a lot of very good performances over the years, and this is on a different planet, I think. I mean Fassbender and Winslet — and Seth Rogan is just extraordinary in his playing [Steve] Wozniak — so yes, I’m very, very proud to be associated with them.”

Despite its impressive cast, positive early reviews, and the massive $130,250 per screen it made in its limited release, Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs has barely earned more than the critically-panned 2013 movie Jobs, starring Ashton Kutcher (also known as Dude, Where’s My License Plate?).

In a sense, I can completely understand Boyle’s frustration — although I don’t know if the movie’s failure can be blamed entirely on opening nationally too soon.

Since the early positive reviews, there was plenty of negative press surrounding the movie and its “liberties” with the truth. It’s also unrealistic to base a movie’s national box office on the markets of New York and Los Angeles — a bit like assuming your startup idea is going to work in Anytown, U.S.A., because some engineers in Silicon Valley told you it was a neat idea.

Maybe the movie will get a second wave of publicity if it does well during awards season?

Source: Associated Press

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