10 Recent Box Office Bombs EVERYONE Saw Coming
9. The Apprentice
Though Ali Abbasi, the director of Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice, expressed confusion at the film flopping commercially, it's an outcome which countless analysts and observers saw coming months ahead of time.
Despite awards buzz for Sebastian Stan's uncanny, eventually Oscar-nominated performance as a younger Trump and a totally sensible budget of just $16 million, The Apprentice tapped out at a poor $17.3 million.
And yet, the calculus is simple - many people, especially Americans, are tired of the political media cycle and Trump's never-ending presence in it, and so the prospect of watching a drama about his early life simply wasn't appealing.
Conversely, Trump supporters would want nothing to do with a film that disparages him, and so a movie was made that had incredibly limited appeal to the general public at large.
Combine this with The Apprentice's struggles to secure distribution due to its controversial depiction of its subject, and distributor Briarcliff Entertainment's limited resources to give it a major rollout, and this wasn't a surprising result in the slightest.