15 h, oct 30, 2011 y - HOLLYWOOD REPORTER Johnny Depp’s ‘Rum Diary’ Tanks at Box Office: What Went Wrong

Description:

Moviegoers, who love Johnny Depp when he sashays on screen as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, stayed away en masse from his newest film The Rum Diary, in which he plays a fictionalized version of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

Opening this weekend in 2,272 theaters, the R-rated movie grossed just $5 million, ranking fifth for the weekend and earning just $2,205 per location.

Rum Diary is Depp’s worst stumble at the box office since the arty fantasy movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which grossed just $7.7 million in the U.S. in 2009, although unlike Rum Diary, it never played in more than 607 theaters.

While there were several earlier and unsuccessful attempts to mount a film version, it wasn’t until Depp and his production company Infinitum Nihil joined forces with Graham King’s GK Films that the movie went into production, filming in Puerto Rico in 2009 with Bruce Robinson, whose 1997 film Withnail & I was a favorite of both Thompson and Depp’s, directing.

FilmDistrict, co-founded by King, took on distribution of Rum Diary, but held off its release until it could find a release date when Depp was free from commitments to his most recent Pirates movie as well as filming of the upcoming Dark Shadows, so he could go on the road to promote the movie.

In addition to a Vanity Fair cover, Depp went out on the road on behalf of the film, doing a college tour that saw him visit UC Berkeley, the University of Texas at Austin and Columbia University.

Depp’s visit to Austin did hit one roadblock when a reporter for local ABC affiliate KVUE news claimed “no ABC affiliates were allowed to get an interview or video of Depp at the event because of a Disney contract revolving around his newest Pirates of the Caribbean film.” Disney did not respond to THR‘s request for comment.

Despite his support, though, the movie attracted few buyers once it hit theaters.

Added to timeline:

Date:

Images: