Are you excited to see Hollywood’s latest blockbuster, “Better Man,” about beloved British pop star Robbie Williams, the famous frontman of the 90s pop group “Take That”?

no?

What if we told you that this biopic was outsourced to CGI monkeys rather than being played by A-List lookalikes?

Is it still not working?

I don’t blame you. The rest of the world, which ensured this apparent failure, will, well, not fail.

This is no small production. It was acquired by Paramount for a whopping $25 million. Even though it was an independent production, it had a huge budget of $110 million. Even by blockbuster standards, it’s nothing to scoff at. For comparison, another blockbuster that went from indie to blockbuster in 2024, “civil war” had a budget of just $50 million and grossed over $126 million at the box office.

So what did I buy with it? According to variety. Even across the pond, where the singer is probably better known, the film failed with a debut of just $1.9 million.

This should be a very positive picture for the audience. Big energy, impressive effects, and a rags-to-riches story — it’s definitely not meant to win any awards or standing ovations at Cannes. Still IHollywood, in their desperate attempts to sell us nostalgia, is revealing just how out of line they really are.

Shallow fame and wealth are no longer the ideals of the West. Those chasing them would create OnlyFans or YouTube accounts rather than join pop groups. The audience will not be deeply moved by the over-the-top production that went too far in the 2010s. The film might have worked better in the ’90s, when audiences were far more naive and willing to embrace consumer ideals of success. Not so today. Unless you’re a big name like Elton John, you’ll be lucky to get an audience.

On the bright side, this movie seems like Hollywood’s take on what viewers actually want (at least in theory), rather than some woke preachy drivel. In other words, I think A stands for effort. It turns out they have no idea what they’re doing.