Billionaire Boys Club had already hit VOD
In October last year, actor Anthony Rapp alleged the Kevin Spacey had made sexual advances on him when he was 14-years-old. Following the publication of Rapp’s story, many other men came forward to make more Sexual misconduct allegations against Spacey.
In the aftermath of this, Netflix announced that Spacey would be removed from the sixth and final season of House of Cards where played the lead role of politician Frank Underwood. Ridley Scott also reshot scenes for his period crime thriller All The Money In The World, replacing Spacey with Christopher Plumber.
No such changes were made however to the true-life drama Billionaire Boys Club, based on the real story of a Ponzi scheme run by a group of rich kids in 1980s LA. The film version stars Ansel Elgort, Taron Egerton and Emma Roberts, with Spacey in a supporting role as a Beverly Hills high-roller.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkdZzOM2VGA
The film was quietly opened in America on Friday, on only ten screens across the country, and it made a minuscule $126 on its opening day. That’s only $12.60 per cinema – the average cinema ticket price is the US is around $9, suggesting some screens had only one person, or even none, see the film. Hollywood Reporter says the film could struggle to hit $1,000 across the full weekend.
The film has previous hit premium VOD last month.
Billionaire Boys Club was filmed back in 2015, before any of the allegations against Spacey were made public.
In a statement, distributors Vertical Entertainment defended to decision to release the film with Spacey’s scenes intact.
“We hope these distressing allegations pertaining to one person’s behaviour — that were not publicly known when the film was made almost two-and-a-half years ago and from someone who has a small, supporting role in Billionaire Boys Club — does not tarnish the release of the film,” the statement said.
“In the end, we hope audiences make up their own minds as to the reprehensible allegations of one person’s past, but not at the expense of the entire cast and crew present on this film.”
