Shia LaBeouf's 'Man Down' Likely to End U.K. Run With Just 3 Tickets Sold

Authored by hollywoodreporter.com and submitted by NinjaDiscoJesus

Shia LaBeouf's 'Man Down' Likely to End U.K. Run With Just 3 Tickets Sold

A box-office jump of 200 percent since its much-derided opening will bring the film's final theatrical haul in the U.K. to $26.

While a 200 percent box-office leap is something most producers might offer their right arm for, the team behind Man Down probably aren't finding much reason to celebrate.

The film — starring Shia LaBeouf as a PTSD-suffering U.S. soldier returning home from Afghanistan — made headlines Tuesday after it was found have opened in the U.K. with just one solitary person buying a cinema ticket.

In fairness to Man Down, it was only showing in one theater (a branch of the Reel Cinema chain in the town of Burnley) and only once a day, but a £7 ($8.70) bow must still rank among the lowest ever, especially for an A-list vehicle (the film also stars Gary Oldman, Jai Courtney and Kate Mara.)

However, speaking to the cinema manager, The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the film has since tripled its box-office takings.

"I think we've sold three tickets in total," she revealed, adding that she hadn't "experienced anything like it before."

The manager said Man Down would end its weeklong run in Burnley's Reel Cinema this Thursday, "highly likely" without any further purchases being made, a move that would see the film's U.K. theatrical total max out at £21 ($26.20), rather less than the $454,490 it earned following a limited theatrical run in the U.S. last December.

As for the individual responsible for the entirety of Man Down's opening haul — surely now a celebrity in cinema circles — the manager said that she hadn't been able to identity who it was.

Or maybe she was simply protecting them from the inevitable media scrum.

Equilibriator on April 5th, 2017 at 14:32 UTC »

> In fairness to Man Down, it was only showing in one theater (a branch of the Reel Cinema chain in the town of Burnley) and only once a day, but a £7 ($8.70) bow must still rank among the lowest ever, especially for an A-list vehicle (the film also stars Gary Oldman, Jai Courtney and Kate Mara.) Kind of theatrical to make it sounds like the whole of UK turned it down when we simply had no idea it existed or a way to watch it in a cinema.

SolomonBlack on April 5th, 2017 at 14:32 UTC »

As was noted in the other posted article this isn't really a release. This is satisfying a contractual obligation that it be released overseas or some such with the least amount of loss so the distributor can get on with where they think this will perform best like VOD.

carolinemathildes on April 5th, 2017 at 13:17 UTC »

I wish I had been the one person who bought the ticket. Honestly, if I lived there, I probably would've been. I could've been internet famous for three minutes.