Audiences weren’t at all in the mood to check out ‘Replicas’ a somber science fiction flick starring Keanu Reeves as a scientist who attempts to create duplicates of his dead wife and kids after they are killed in a car accident. The film made only $2.4 million in its opening weekend and was poorly received by both critics and average filmgoers. ‘Replicas’ has a lousy 11% cumulative score on Rotten Tomatoes, while those who bought tickets to see it, slammed it with a low C CinemaScore. It seems that at one time, the film had actually ranked on Rotten Tomatoes at 93% which is stellar for any film. But once more people saw it, that ranking plummeted hard.
Social Media monitor, Relish Mix, reported that pretty much the only online chatter regarding ‘Replicas’ is pirates asking and informing each other of how and where they can find the movie online.
This is the lowest wide opening of Reeves’ career. Entertainment Studios acquired the film for $4M after it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier in 2018. Prior to its release, industry professionals projected that it would open to between $4-7M, which it obviously failed to do.
Reeves has been in the game for quite a while, so understandably, his popularity has risen and fallen. But he was on a bit of an upswing in recent years, with the success of the ‘John Wick’ shoot-’em-ups. But this isn’t an escapist action movie but a somber drama, which audiences simply didn’t seem that into.
It isn’t as though ‘Replicas’ was squeezed out due to competition. The box office overall is down from December, which is normal. A new movie, ‘The Upside’ starring Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston was #1 with 19.59M. But it isn’t as though theatergoers chose ‘The Upside’ over ‘Replicas’. ‘Replicas’ total of $2.4M isn’t even enough to have landed it in the Top Ten. It faltered to a lousy #12 entry, behind not just blockbusters, but smaller indies and award hopefuls like ‘On the Basis of Sex’ and ‘Vice’.
‘Replicas’ was directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff and also stars Alice Eve.
Did you see ‘Replicas’ this weekend? Did it deserve to do better? Or was it a wasted trip to the cinema?
Source: Deadline
