Here’s if not a first, something unusual. The ticket sales for Roman Coppola’s film, “A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III” were so bad–actually almost non-existent, that its distributor only reported results once. The film, intended to show that star Charlie Sheen still had drawing power and fans after his personal crash in 2011, was sent to theaters. But no one came.
After the first week on February 8th, fledgling studio A24 Pictures reported earnings of $12,000. The second week, initially there were no reports. This column inquired, and was told that by February 17th, the movie had made $35,000. That was the last anyone heard from “Charles Swan III” or Charlie Sheen.
Since then, A24 has released “Ginger and Rosa,” a good little film, to poor results. But they may have a real success with Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers,” which got great reviews and broke indie art house records last weekend in New York and L.A. It will go into more cities this weekend, and features a knockout performance by James Franco.
But “Charles Swan” is gone. Bill Murray, Patricia Arquette, and Jason Schwartzman–the director’s cousin– are all in it. So is Sheen, who could probably absorb the whole loss and not miss it. But millions have been squandered. And it’s pretty clear that Sheen does not have an automatic audience pining to see him on the big screen.
The film, by the way, was entirely unwatchable. Just in case you wondered.
