Fifa wanted to call it Men of Legend or The Dream Makers. But even a somewhat more toned down title has not been enough to stop United Passions being named as the lowest-grossing film in US box office history.
The Hollywood Reporter has now confirmed the self-congratulatory project, starring Tim Roth as controversial outgoing president Sepp Blatter, scored the puniest total of all time in North America. With a final weekend return of just $918 from 10 cinemas, Frederic Auburtin’s £17m drama - Fifa paid most of the costs - lines up ahead of such titans of modern cinema as 2012 vampire rock musical I Kissed a Vampire ($1,380) and 2013 animated adventure Last Flight of the Champion ($1,493).
United Passions was pulled from cinemas by its distributor after its appalling performance, so its record-breaking low will remain crystallised in history. Auburtin admitted earlier this week that the film, also starring Gerard Depardieu and Sam Neill, represented “a disaster” and said he regretted his involvement. Roth has said he did the movie to get out of a financial hole and admitted the knowledge that his son would one day play Blatter would have had his father “turning in his grave”. Meanwhile, Cannes president Thierry Fremaux revealed the movie was only screened at the film festival in May under pressure from Depardieu.
It was Auburtin who revealed those excruciating proposed titles. Critics have also not been kind: The Guardian’s Jordan Hoffman labelled United Passions cinematic “excrement”, adding: “As proof of corporate insanity it is a valuable case study.”
The film has done marginally better in Russia, the Blatter-approved beneficiary of the upcoming 2018 World Cup, where it has scored $158,000. It has not been picked up for distribution in football-loving countries such as the UK, Germany and Brazil and went straight to DVD in France.
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