James Franco’s latest exercise in filmmaking, Zeroville, has dropped at the box office with a massive thud, earning less than $9,000 this past weekend. A passion project for Franco, who both directed and starred in the movie, Zeroville is based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Steve Erickson. It tells the tale of a near-autistic architecture student named Ike Jerome, whose passion for cinema inspires him to tattoo an image of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift on his scalp, and travel to Hollywood.
His unique personality charms those around him, to the effect of earning him a place in film design, and eventually a job as an editor. But his fanciful journey eventually becomes a nightmare when his luck takes a tragic turn. Joining Franco on screen is a host of talent, including the likes of Megan Fox, Seth Rogen, Will Ferrell, and Danny McBride. Alas, the star power in front of, and behind, the cameras did nothing to alleviate the poor box office draw and critical discontent.
As reported by The Wrap, Zeroville earned a regrettable $8,897 nationwide, averaging a paltry $111 average per screen. That’s the lowest per screen average for any of Franco’s directorial efforts. The Disaster Artist is an outlier in his filmography, as his other projects made less than $30,000 for their entire run and had very limited releases. Of course, this doesn’t include Franco’s directorial debut, The Ape, in which he starred as a young writer who becomes roommates with a cussing primate in a Hawaiian shirt. There are no box office records for that one, as it went straight to video.
Franco has enjoyed plenty of success as an actor over the years. He’s starred in both fan favorites such as the original Spider-Man trilogy, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and This is the End, as well as critical darlings 127 Hours, Milk, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. And then, of course, there is The Disaster Artist, which is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Additionally,Franco himself took home the award for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy. He was also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.
The Disaster Artist stands as a shining example that James Franco has talent on both sides of the camera. Whether his directing abilities will produce another hit, only time will tell. But there is irony to be found in the fact that Zeroville currently stands only one Rotten Tomato percentage point (27%) above The Room (26%), the so-called ‘disaster’ that made The Disaster Artist possible.
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Source: The Wrap
