‘The American Society Of Magical Negroes’ Is A Financial Disaster, Barely Manages To Make $1 Million On Opening Weekend
Josh Berger
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The American Society of Magical Negroes, a self-described comedy produced by Focus Features and directed by Kobi Libii, is a massive financial disaster that will likely fail to break even.
As per information collected by The Numbers, the Justice Smith-led film was barely able to pass the 1 million mark, making a total of $1,304,270 on opening weekend — debuting on 1,147 theaters across the United States. While the film’s production budget is being kept under wraps, these numbers are still abysmal.
To better illustrate, The American Society of Magical Negroes grossed a mere $524,695 on Friday, a measly $469,070 on Saturday, and an even more pathetic $310,505 on Sunday, seeing a 34% drop from opening day.
The weekend also saw the release of Lionsgate’s Arthur the King — a film based on the memoir of Swedish adventure racer Mikael Lindnord and the circumstances that led to him adopting a stray dog that accompanied him for over 400 miles during a race in the Amazon Rainforest.
To put things into perspective, Arthur the King, starring Mark Wahlberg in the leading role, grossed a total of $7,633,898 on opening weekend, debuting on 3,003 theaters, landing the third position at the box office behind Warner Bros.’ Dune: Part Two in second place and Universal Pictures’ Kung Fu Panda 4 at the very top of the chart.
The American Society of Magical Negroes had to settle for the box office chart’s ninth place, and word of mouth isn’t doing the film any favors either.
On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, The American Society of Magical Negroes has a critics score of 30% and a 59% audience score. Similarly, the film was met with “Mixed or Average” reviews on Metacritic, based on 19 critics reviews for a disappointing 52/10 and a user score of 0.5/10 based on 43 user ratings for a “Overwhelming Dislike” user score.
Interestingly, the film’s director had previously declared that he wasn’t concerned about audiences not understanding the message he’s trying to push with The American Society of Magical Negroes.
When specifically asked whether he was worried people unfamiliar with the ‘Magical Negro’ trope would not understand the film’s message, during an interview with Black Entertainment Television, Libii said, “Not particularly, because it’s one of those things that like, even if you don’t know the term, you know. It’s Spike Lee’s term, he’s the one who coined it.”
“You know that Black character that’s just there to be nebulously Black in the background. They’re not really a person and we all can picture it,” he noted. “Beyond the movie, we all know what it’s like to feel pushed to the side and have somebody else pushed to the front.”
He would later vaguely explain, “This movie is about learning to be seen how you deserve to be seen. That’s something that a lot of Black people can connect with, but I think there are a lot of people who also maybe feel pushed to the side or not regarded as fully as they deserve to be.”
“So I hope this is a nourishing and joyful space where everyone can feel a little bit more appreciated than in some of these movies I’m criticizing,” Libii concluded.
Futher proving that neither the producers, director, or the actors understood what the demographic for the movie they were making was, Justice Smith attempted to explain why films like The American Society of Magical Negroes is relevant for “marginalized” individuals.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, when Grier, Smith, and Libii talked about their own “experience with racism,” Smith said, “It’s so funny because, as black audiences… as any marginalized person can attest to, we’ve had to find ourselves in white stories.”
“We’ve had to find white characters that we identify with for so long, and then now that we’re centering ourselves in these stories white audiences, for the first time ever, are being like, ‘Oh, like, like, now I have to find myself, even though no one in this looks like me. Like, I really identify with this protagonist.’ But that’s where empathy comes from, you know, that’s where actual movement comes from,” the actor asserted.
Regardless of the message the director is desperately attempting to convey with The American Society of Magical Negroes, whatever that may be, any film struggling to make $1MM at the box office is in dire need of a certain magical individual lending a helping hand.
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