Danny Boyle, director of the unfortunate box office bomb Steve Jobs, has said that people involved with the movie were guilty of behaving in an “arrogant” way.
Why? Not through twisting the truth, or painting an unfairly unflattering portrait of Apple’s late CEO as some have suggested — but rather opening the movie wide as quickly as they did.
“We were arrogant to release it very wide, very quickly,” Boyle said during a fundraising event for Shuffle Festival.
As we’ve written about at Cult of Mac, Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle’s Jobs biopic was dumped from 2,072 screens after its already weak box office takings fell a massive 69 percent soon after opening.
This isn’t the first time Boyle has discussed the release schedule of the film, after it initially opened to good (albeit very limited) takings at select screens in New York and Los Angeles. Interestingly, the last time Boyle talked about the suggestion that the movie went wide too quickly, he lashed out at “hindsight experts” for claiming this.
Personally, I think it’s clear by now that the movie was never going to be a hit with audiences outside of core markets like L.A. and New York. While the theory of limited movie releasing for prestige pictures is to drum up strong reviews and word-of-mouth before expanding, in the case of Steve Jobs the movie got its best reviews early on, and has since suffered a more damaging backlash.
If you haven’t seen Steve Jobs, you can check out a PDF of Aaron Sorkin’s script here, which was released by Universal last week.
Source: Business Insider
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.
13 responses to “Steve Jobs director: We were arrogant to release movie like we did”
After a massive failure these Hollywood so called big shots still can’t admit no one cares about a movie full of lies about jobs and everyone in the movie, people care about an accurate as can be, 100% true story of jobs from the beginning to his death, not just about three product releases, the entire time frame. There’s your box office hit, now I’m going to sue whoever makes the movie unless I get my royalties, awesome know it all idiots.
and exactly WHO delivers this “100%” true story? EVERYONE has a different perception. Co workers, friends, spouses, clients.
What’s really arrogant is that he thinks that he’s being believable when he claims that the movie should not have been released to wide distribution so quickly. It’s either a good movie, or it’s a bad one. When it gets released makes no difference. Danny Boyle needs to own up to the fact that his movie is a dud. He’s not the first director to release a movie that wasn’t a hit with movie goers, and he won’t be the last. Move on and do better the next time.
what? Have you seen the movie? Have you even looked at the reviews? This was a great movie. History is full of excellent movies that don’t make money in this Marvel/HungerGames/HarryPotter world.
I saw it, it ruled, idiots are morons, they hated citizen Kane when it was released and this will follow suit cuz it’s a great movie
Wrong. You clearly know nothing about the film industry
“Danny Boyle, director of the unfortunate box office bomb Steve Jobs, has said that people involved with the movie were guilty of behaving in an “arrogant” way.”
“People involved with the movie…?” Which river of denial is Boyle walking on? He was the director, and most certainly had more than a •little• say-so in every aspect of the film, including content and release. Funny, but even now Boyle and company can’t admit the real reason for “Steve Jobs” bombing. It was only a tiny part of a complicated tale, and not well told.
You realize the producers & distributors have the real power, right? Directors are the little guys compared to the Hollywood Jews.
Not to mention is starred racist pot head Seth Rogan.
What’s wrong with being a pothead now? Personally I think Seth Rogan has achieved more success than you commenting here.
“Hollywood Jews?” Go peddle your bigoted, anti-Semitic remarks somewhere else!
I’m sure if Mark Wahlberg was in the lead & if Michael Bay was behind the camera..
It’s citizen Kane and will age well