{"id":102212,"date":"2025-08-22T16:31:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T16:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/102212\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T16:31:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T16:31:06","slug":"why-aap-rocky-taylor-swift-and-the-weeknd-struggle-at-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/102212\/","title":{"rendered":"Why A$AP Rocky, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd Struggle at Box Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAt the Cannes Film Festival premiere of \u201cHighest 2 Lowest<\/a>\u201d in May, all eyes were on the crime drama\u2019s fourth lead: A$AP Rocky<\/a>. The \u201cEveryday\u201d rapper\u2019s very presence at the Palais sent photographers into a frenzy before he and partner Rihanna<\/a> were whisked away to the film\u2019s exclusive beach party, followed by an early-morning yacht bash sponsored by Ray-Ban. Despite all the fanfare<\/a> and a riveting performance in which Rocky held his own<\/a> opposite two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington<\/a>, \u201cHighest 2 Lowest\u201d barely made a whimper at the box office when it arrived in roughly 300 theaters on Aug. 15. In fact, the final numbers were likely so weak that A24<\/a> and Apple Studios<\/a> took the unorthodox step of not releasing box office numbers at all.<\/p>\n

\n\tRocky is certainly not alone. A stream of chart toppers with massive social media followings have made bold forays into the movie business only to be ignored by theatergoers, from Taylor Swift<\/a> (\u201cCats,\u201d which bombed and swept the 2020 Razzies) to Harry Styles<\/a> (whose \u201cMy Policeman\u201d received a limited global release in 2022, making not enough money in U.K. theaters to even register a tally before Amazon Studios dumped it on its streaming platform).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe phenomenon of the music star fizzle dates back decades, having dinged the big-screen aspirations of everyone from Mariah Carey<\/a> (\u201cGlitter\u201d) to Britney Spears<\/a> (\u201cCrossroads\u201d) to even Rihanna (remember \u201cBattleship\u201d?). But this past year saw a pair of spectacular misfires. The Weeknd<\/a>\u2019s \u201cHurry Up Tomorrow<\/a>\u201d flamed out with $5.2 million domestically<\/a> despite a wide release in more than 2,000 theaters and major TV star Jenna Ortega<\/a> as co-lead. And Lady Gaga<\/a>\u2019s \u201cJoker: Folie \u00e0 Deux\u201d became the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons<\/a>, earning $208 million against a $200 million budget. All this begs the question: Why is it so hard for music industry A-listers to make the pivot to movie stardom?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFame isn\u2019t really transferable currency across mediums. A music star can bring awareness but not loyalty. Fans escape through that persona, not watching them act like someone else,\u201d says box office analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. \u201cRemember how desperately Madonna wanted to become a major movie star? Never really happened. A musician would almost have to fully reinvent themselves to make that transition. \u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps A24 and Apple Studios\u2019 move to forgo box office results on \u201cHighest 2 Lowest,\u201d directed by Oscar winner Spike Lee<\/a>, should be considered a red flag. The distributor and the tech giant also kept the grosses for 2021\u2019s \u201cThe Tragedy of Macbeth\u201d opaque, opting for a flimsy statement that the film had \u201cmultiple sellouts across all 12 opening markets.\u201d (At least it had the excuse of being a COVID-era release.) Neither released the budget on \u201cHighest 2 Lowest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA24 is very consistent in terms of reporting numbers,\u201d says Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics at Fandango. \u201cIt\u2019s unheard of for a well-known studio like that to be keeping mum about box office receipts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTransparency aside, the task of plugging a high-profile recording artist \u2014 or two in the case of \u201cHighest 2 Lowest,\u201d which also features Ice Spice<\/a> in a smaller role \u2014 into a film isn\u2019t always misguided. After all, director Bradley Cooper cast Gaga in 2018\u2019s \u201cA Star Is Born,\u201d a vehicle perfectly suited for her talent and persona. That film, with a relatively minuscule $36 million budget, earned Gaga a best actress mention and nabbed $440 million worldwide. Ditto Jon Chu, whose \u201cWicked\u201d star Ariana Grande<\/a> landed a supporting actress Oscar nomination<\/a>, while the film\u2019s global haul topped $700 million. Ice Cube<\/a>, who began his career as a member of gangsta rap group N.W.A, is among the small clutch of successful recording artists who morphed into topline actors, scoring such hits as the \u201cBarbershop\u201d and \u201cRide Along\u201d franchises. (His breakout came via David O. Russell\u2019s Iraq war caper \u201cThree Kings.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCrossover for a very popular artist can be very difficult,\u201d Robbins says. \u201cPlaying against type can work really well, and lightning is captured in a bottle like Justin Timberlake in \u2018The Social Network.\u2019 He certainly wasn\u2019t the highlight of the film. So many other elements are driving that film\u2019s success. Sometimes it requires the artist being not necessarily the face of the film.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tProducers say it\u2019s tricky to pinpoint why some recording luminaries translate on the big screen while other don\u2019t. Sticking exclusively to musicals isn\u2019t foolproof, or \u201cJoker 2\u201d or \u201cCats\u201d might have worked. By contrast, Styles made a savvy move by taking a supporting role in Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cDunkirk.\u201d But that strategy didn\u2019t work for Swift when she appeared in a smaller part in Russell\u2019s \u201cAmsterdam.\u201d Unlike \u201cThree Kings,\u201d the movie didn\u2019t catch on or corral the Swifties, taking home a paltry $31 million off an $80 million budget. Gaga\u2019s excursion into song-less drama in Ridley Scott\u2019s \u201cHouse of Gucci\u201d didn\u2019t inspire theatergoers or critics, who mocked her Italian accent. And though Selena Gomez<\/a> can claim one of the largest fandoms in the world \u2014 with 417 million Instagram followers \u2014 her base stayed home when the 2019 zombie comedy \u201cThe Dead Don\u2019t Die\u201d arrived at the multiplex.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAuteurs like Paul Thomas Anderson have gambled on centering a film on a singer, as he did with 2021\u2019s \u201cLicorice Pizza,\u201d which starred Haim vocalist Alana Haim<\/a>. While critics and Oscar voters embraced the comedy-drama, it was a money loser for United Artists Releasing, pulling in less than the $40 million budget during the theatrical run. Others who have no trouble filling stadiums, like Travis Scott<\/a>, have had to settle for box office obscurity. In 2023, A24 took the Scott-led \u201cAggro Dr1ft\u201d to Venice, but the Harmony Korine-helmed film ultimately earned an embarrassing $201,351 worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, it\u2019s a head-scratcher that A24, which is adept at platform releases, would decline to report receipts on \u201cHighest 2 Lowest.\u201d The distributor typically reports grosses even when a movie only unspools in a handful of theaters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSays Bock: \u201cMovies are their own sacred ritual and thus have different fan behavior. Music fans want to see their favorite artists in person at a concert, not on a screen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the Cannes Film Festival premiere of \u201cHighest 2 Lowest\u201d in May, all eyes were on the crime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[40638,88,59173],"class_list":{"0":"post-102212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-aap-rocky","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-highest-2-lowest"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}