The final weekend grosses for the Justin Bieber movie “Believe” were much lower than what I reported earlier. “Believe” didn’t even make $4.3 mil– he landed at $4.27 million. The Sunday box office projection was just 540,000. That’s pretty dreadful.
Manager Scooter Braun tweeted a message from a beach vacation to which he’s retreated while Bieber’s career takes a sharp turn downward. His other big client from last year, singer Carly Rae Jepsen of “Call Me Maybe” fame, is going into a 12 week stint in Broadway’s “Cinderella.” Jepsen couldn’t re-create her number 1 hit. So she’s doing what most pop retirees do– heading to a Broadway run as fill-in. Debbie Gibson used to do this. At least Jepsen isn’t going into “Chicago.” She may run into Justin Guarini on W. 44th St.
Bieber may heading to “Pippin” or — hmmm– maybe he’ll go into “Chicago” as Roxie Hart. “Believe” has really turned into a turkey. If only $540,000 worth of kids saw his movie on a Sunday, the easiest of all days for parents to take kids to the flicks, what’s left? Not much.
Now we wait for the actual numbers on Bieber’s “Journals” album. It could be the bloom is off the rose, very suddenly. God help all of today’s teen pop stars if the kids actually saw the Shirley MacLaine number on the Kennedy Center honors show. All the performers were singing live. On key. Sutton Foster especially. Can you imagine? “Mommy, what are they doing? Why do they sound so good? Don’t they have AutoTune and special mics?”
