It’s no secret that Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs has been a massive flop in theaters, but an interesting comparison with the notorious Ashton Kutcher-starring biopic Jobs shows something surprising: Kutcher’s movie may ultimately emerge the box office winner.
Steve Jobs has so far made $17.8 million at the box office since its October release, compared to $16.1 million for Jobs back in August 2013. While that seems to give the (marginal) edge to the newer flick, however, the worldwide box office for the O.G. Jobs came to $35.9 million in total, compared to $24.8 million for Sorkin’s film.
There are still a few markets waiting for Steve Jobs, but, as VentureBeat points out, “Sorkin’s movie is going to have a tough climb ahead to match Kutcher’s.”
The real kicker comes down to the budgets, though. While the star-studded new movie cost $30 million, the Ashton Kutcher-starring Jobs set producers back only $12 million. Without full knowledge of the marketing cost for both movies it’s tough to say exactly what the deal is, but it’s almost certain that investors in Jobs will see their money long, long before those in Steve Jobs.
Who could ever have predicted that?
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
3 responses to “Battle of the Jobs: Kutcher beats Sorkin at the box office”
Kutcher version was a bland, by-the-numbers generic biopic with a guy who not much played Jobs but tried to imitate him. The new film is well crafted with numerous outstanding performances. When you look at both of them from a purely cinematic perspective, there is no reason why people would prefer Kutcher version, so it probably goes down to marketing and, a bit surprising for me, boycott from Apple fanboys before anyone even watched the film.
But the best version is the Funny or Die film “iSteve” starring Justin Long as Jobs and Jorge Garcia as Wozniak (who really steals the show).
i still say the Pirates of silicon valley is by far the best of all of them.