The Fifth Estate Bombs At Box Office

The Fifth Estate, based on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, has made the worst US box office debut of any major film this year according to Sky News.

The film, co-produced by Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks studio, made just $1.7m (£1.05m) in ticket sales in its opening weekend over 1,769 cinemas. The Fifth Estate has received mixed reviews from critics and has been heavily criticised by Julian Assange himself. He is currently wanted for questioning in Sweden but is still hiding away at the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he is seeking asylum.

In a statement, Assange urged people to avoid “claptrap Hollywood propaganda” and has deemed the film inaccurate. The distributor, Disney, has described its appalling debut as “certainly disappointing”  and is going to look into why it had received such a poor reception.

However, the film’s leading star Benedict Cumberbatch is still considered as one of Hollywood’s rising stars, starring as a villian in the latest Star Trek movie and in the highly anticipated McQueen movie, ’12 years a slave’.

The Fifth Estate is showing at UK cinemas now