The Box Office Flop 'Better Man' Should Kill the Musical Biopic Trend for Good
The era of throwing blockbuster budgets at musical biopics may have ended with a CGI monkey.
The long-running run of big-budget musical biopics may have just hit the wall. Paramount's Better Man — a $110 million surreal jukebox film about British pop star Robbie Williams, portrayed as a singing, cocaine-snorting CGI chimpanzee — has crashed so hard at the box office that it's hard to imagine another studio taking a similar risk any time soon.
Final box office totals:
- Domestic: $1,983,648 from 1,291 theaters
- International: $18,165,537
- Worldwide: $20,149,185
Even in the UK and Europe, where Williams is still a top touring act, the film fizzled. On its opening weekend, it was beaten by The Last Showgirl, a $2 million indie starring Pamela Anderson that earned $1.5 million from just 870 screens.
Critical darling, audience avoidance
Directed by Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman), the movie pushes beyond standard pop-star worship, blending fact and fiction to depict Williams as an egomaniacal, alcoholic chimp. Critics loved it — 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, higher than Rocketman, Bohemian Rhapsody, and One Love — and audiences gave it a 91% approval rating. But the concept itself alienated potential ticket buyers.
"People just couldn't get past the monkey," one studio executive admitted. "It's too weird. It's like, What the f**ck?"
Paramount bought North American rights for $25 million in February 2024, just after Hollywood's strike-driven production shutdowns had left a gap in the release calendar. Financing came from independent investors and an Australian government incentive program. But analysts agree the budget doomed it from the start.
David A. Gross of FranchiseRe noted,
"$110m is not realistic for the genre or the musical artist. $25 to $30 million would have made more sense."
Comscore's Paul Dergarabedian added that Better Man was "so high-concept that people couldn't grasp it," making it even tougher to market.
Bad timing and worse trends
The Los Angeles market was expected to be a major driver for sales — until wildfires kept audiences home on opening weekend. But the damage goes beyond one weekend or one city. The musical biopic genre has been stretched thin by years of increasingly expensive projects chasing the next Bohemian Rhapsody. When even an 89%-rated entry can't draw crowds, the message to studios is clear: the formula isn't a guarantee anymore, especially when the subject is niche for U.S. audiences.
Gracey's The Greatest Showman was also written off before becoming a sleeper hit, and some believe Better Man could find new life on streaming.
"Movies that get more attention than box office in theaters wind up doing extraordinarily well on streaming," Dergarabedian said.
But that won't erase a nine-figure theatrical loss.