The Shia LaBeouf movie that sold just one ticket at the box office
During the late 2000s and early 2010s, actor Shia LaBeouf was a significantly bankable star. As the charismatic lead in Transformers in 2007, the actor brought a humorous element of the everyman to help balance out the huge CGI spectacle, a playing card which would serve him well in future roles in the franchise and other big-budget films as well.
Then, after a series of high-profile allegations of abuse, alcohol-related arrests, numerous altercations with fellow members of casts and a decision to pour his energy into bizarre and cryptic performance art projects, LaBeouf fell out of favour with Hollywood. As the 2010s drew to a close, you’d be hard-pressed to have found the actor in a major studio movie, starring instead in a string of independent and foreign projects.
Whilst this ultimately resulted in more interesting performances from LaBeouf and progressive collaborations with fellow filmmakers, it nonetheless signified a significant shift in the way the film industry and audiences viewed him. In particular, the way British audiences saw him, as demonstrated by one of the lowest opening-weekend turnouts in history.
When Dito Montiel’s Man Down (2015), a war thriller with LaBeouf in the lead, premiered in the UK, it played at only one cinema. Films being shown in a single theatre isn’t a completely unheard of practice; often to accompany a straight-to-digital release, a ‘token’ screening will be picked for the movie. Even as token films go, however, attendance was at an all-time low.
Following LaBeouf as a Marine who returns to find his homeland ravaged, the film acted as a commentary on PTSD in the veteran community, using fractured narratives and elements of psychological horror to reinforce the pain of experiencing such a thing. The Reel Cinema in Burnley, Lancashire, was the chosen cinema for Man Down’s release, and it reported a total weekend gross of… £7.
This can only mean that one ticket was sold, and it’s even possible it was a discounted ticket to boot. Unfortunately, this abysmal UK opening would serve to forecast how well the film would do internationally as well. Despite a cast consisting of Gary Oldman and Jai Courtney, the film made $167,085 worldwide despite its $3,000,000 budget.
Whilst there are certainly other films that have lost much less money compared to their cost, it nevertheless stands as a particularly low point for the actor in a period of industry ostracisation. Luckily, LaBeouf is reportedly on the cast of Megalopolis, the upcoming sci-fi epic from Francis Ford Coppola, which should mark a truly spectacular return to form.
