The Apprentice turned out to be a disappointment as it witnessed a rough opening weekend in the theatres. The film garnered an estimated $1.6 million on its opening from theatres across 1,740 locations. The film barely made it to the tenth position at the box office. The film is based on the early life of former president Donald Trump when he was a young businessman.

Also Read: Apprentice director Ali Abbasi responds to Trump’s outburst, ‘weekly ratings bigger than…’

The Apprentice’s poor box office performance

The pre-release tracking of the film estimated the film to open in the $3 million range. The film made only $908 on average per theatre, which was the worst among all movies that opened this weekend and the lowest for any film in the top 10. The film was made on a budget of $16 million and took over six years to finish its production, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

The film faced challenges before its release as Briarcliff secured the US rights for the film in the 11th hour and had only five weeks to sell it. This resulted in a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the film’s marketing cost. The film was also slammed with a cease-and-desist order from Trump which warned the production team to not pursue a distribution deal, as reported by Forbes.

While the film failed to perform with the audience, it entered the good books of the critics. The Apprentice earned a 78% score and an audience rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. The man behind the best picture winner Spotlight, Tom Ortenberg who is also chief of Briarcliff believed the movie will grow steadily. The opening weekend will not decide the film’s fate yet

Also Read: Diddy’s legal team accuses Tony Buzbee of an ‘attempts to garner publicity’ as he files 6 lawsuits

The Apprentice controversy

Following the film’s week opening at the box office, Trump said it was a “FAKE and CLASSLESS Movie written about me” in a Truth Social post. He also accused the producers of the film of releasing the movie right before the elections as a trick to hurt his chances in November. He called it a “cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job,” along with “pile of garbage” and “scum”.

The director of the film, Ali Abbasi hit back at Trump during an interview where he stated that it was interesting that his film was being called unsuccessful when the “weekly ratings for the movie combined are bigger than all the people who went to Trump’s rallies this week”. He also revealed that his first response to the former president’s brutal assessment of his film was “ wish I could retain him for our marketing team, but I know he’s busy,” as reported by Daily Express US.