Hey, did you see that new Jessica Chastain movie? Neither did anyone else

Normally when I find myself writing about a movie here it’s to do a review. That’s not the case today, but it’s a film that you’ve probably seen the trailers and advertisements for ad nauseam if you own a television. The film in question is the gun control dream project called Miss Sloane, starring Jessica Chastain. On the odd chance that you were somehow lucky enough to miss the cavalcade of national advertising dumped into this project, here’s the trailer.

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If you had nothing to go on but that trailer you might begin to think that this was some sort of thrilling, high tension drama. They certainly do their best, using scattered bits of exclamatory dialogue and swelling background music. Digging a bit deeper into what it’s actually about, we learn that this film captures the high stakes, thrilling world of a lobbyist attempting to get a piece of legislation passed in Congress.

Yep… you read that correctly. That’s what the movie is about. The legislation in question is a gun control bill and the evil villains are, of course, the NRA. And in its first week the film performed just about exactly as well as you might expect a story of the legislative process to do. It was one of the worst openings at all time. (Free Beacon)

Miss Sloane, the gun control thriller starring Jessica Chastain, over the weekend posted one of the worst performances of the past 35 years for a movie in wide release.

The movie pulled in $1,167 on average at the 1,648 theaters across the country it was shown in. It made $1,922,300, meaning it was the 11th-highest grossing movie in the country. It is number 79 on Box Office Mojo’s list of Worst Opening Weekend by Per-Theater Average since 1982.

Industry observers criticized the movie’s performance on Monday. Time said the movie “fizzled in its wide expansion.” Fortune described it as struggling. The Los Angeles Times said Miss Sloane failed to meet “an already lackluster” projection of $5 million for the weekend.

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The film cost around $13M to make. (Is Jessica Chastain really going that cheaply? It takes several million for a movie of this size just to pay the crew, supporting cast and cover all of the normal logistics.) That means in order to even reach the break even point on costs they’d have to leave this dog in more than a thousand theaters until the end of January and hope that the same tiny audience kept trickling in every week.

As the Beacon goes on to note, this waste of camera equipment isn’t just up there on the list of all time worst openings. It’s really bad. It did worse on the opening weekend than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Shaun the Sheep Movie, Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace, and Gigli.

Ouch.

Was it really that bad? The problem here obviously wasn’t the production value or the star power. It’s just a subject which too much of the public disagrees with and the rest probably don’t want to blow twenty bucks to go sit in a theater and watch. The NRA Institute for Legislative Action notes that the Brady Campaign was behind this effort. It wasn’t their first foray into Hollywood and these efforts always end badly.

This very telling admission provides great insight into the base motive and method of those in the gun control movement and their view of policy-making in the United States. What the American people want is irrelevant, gun control elites know better, and they will continue to push their message through all available means. They certainly have willing accomplices in the media and entertainment industry.

But we will warn those in the gun control movement not to take box-office losses lightly. Because Hollywood does not. Lest anyone forget, it is middle-America that provides the means which afford so many in the entertainment industry extraordinary wealth and lavish lifestyles.

While Hollywood elites may joke about “flyover country” at haughty cocktail parties, they do understand that the proverbial golden goose, in their case, are those whose lifestyle and culture they often openly disdain. Or, at least those who hold the purse-strings understand.

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I’m still expecting to do at least one more movie review for you by the end of the year, but it’s not going to be Miss Sloane. Odds are I’ll take in that new outer space film with Jennifer Lawrence. Even if it’s really bad it’s at least got a robot bartender.

misssloane

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