Nolte: ‘Musk’ Hit Job, Aaron Sorkin’s Fascist ‘Social Reckoning’ Both DOA at Box Office

Writer-director Aaron Sorkin spent $50 million of Sony’s dollars to produce a fascist movie that attempts to shame corporate America into censoring the “unapproved” political and social opinions of everyday people. With promotion, the bill for The Social Reckoning is probably closer to $120 million, and… After only three weeks in theaters, it is already doornail dead with a $15 million total gross. Oh, and that $15 million is not this historic flop’s domestic gross. No, no, no, no… That $15 million is The Social Reckoning’s global gross — $9 million domestic plus $6 million overseas. In its third weekend, The Social Reckoning collapsed an incredible 85 percent. Tee hee. By comparison, The Social Network grossed $225 million globally back in 2010. According to the accepted Hollywood math, Sony will likely lose about $100 million on Sorkin’s fascist stinkbomb. Never did I expect to ever see a movie that demands multinational corporations take control of the public square where America debates politics and then censor those opinions. Hollywood used to warn us against the potential for large corporations to steal our freedom, especially freedom of speech. But here’s an Oscar-winning director and a major studio lobbying in favor of corporate fascism. What a world. Speaking of flops, Alex Gibney’s four-hour attack on Elon Musk, Musk, is equally doornail dead. After three weekends, this historic bomb has grossed just $643,000. That’s pretty pathetic, especially with a fairly wide release that reached 470 theaters in week two. You might say, in Musk’s defense, Why would anyone want to watch an overlong documentary about a Silicon Valley tech giant? To which I would reply… You Can See Everything, the three-hour documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, has already grossed $45 million in just two weekends. So there. The Social Reckoning is fascist propaganda. Musk is a leftist lecture. No one wants to watch that crap. Then there’s DC’s Clayface, which opened to $24 million, which is neither good nor bad. All in, production plus promotion, this is probably a $100 million movie. That means $200 million is close to break-even. Globally, it reached $43 million. We’ll know more about its fate next weekend. An A- CinemaScore means it could hold on pretty well and maybe even make a profit. Compared to other DC movies, it did not open well. But it is a horror movie. It is R-rated. So, it deserves another weekend before judgment is passed.