The Fifth Estate flops at U.S. box office, named worst major studio debut of the year

Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in new biopic The Fifth Estate has officially been deemed a box office flop after grossing just $1.7 million (£1.13 million) in the U.S., making it the worst major debut of the year so far. The thriller, directed by Bill Condon, charts the story of the controversial whistleblowing website, but it fell flat when it debuted in the U.K. earlier this month (Oct13), taking a pitiful $753,000 (£502,000) in its opening weekend, and now it’s failed to draw audiences on the other side of the Atlantic, too.
The movie, which cost $26 million (£17.3 million) to make for Participant Media and Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios, scraped into the U.S. top 10 at eight, despite opening in more than 1,500 theatres nationwide.
It provided little competition for Sandra Bullock and George Clooney’s space disaster epic Gravity, which took $31 million (£20.7 million) in its third weekend of release to stay at number one, while Tom Hanks’ kidnap drama Captain Phillips remained at two with $17.3 million (£11.5 million).
The top five was rounded out by the new Carrie remake, which enters at three, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 at four and Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Escape Plan at five.