The American Society of Magical Negroes has completely ran out of magic, as Focus Features makes the decision to pull the film from theaters, after a three-week run, because audiences simply didn’t show up to watch it.
While there is no official announcement from the studio, The Numbers confirms that the film’s last day in theaters was Thursday the 4th of April — ending its pathetic theatrical run 21 days after the film debuted to overwhelmingly negative reviews.
Debuting on 1,147 theaters across the United States, The American Society of Magical Negroes was barely able to make $1MM at the box office on opening weekend, grossing $524,695 on Friday, a measly $469,070 on Saturday, and an even more disappointing $310,505 for a pathetic total of $1,304,270.
The American Society of Magical Negroes‘ daily box office performance looked as predictably atrocious as one might have expected, barely managing to gross a mere $5,440 across 152 theaters on its final day, having grossed a pathetic total gross $2,480,645 in the 21 days it was available.
Interestingly, it seems the studio tried to breathe new life into the film’s theatrical run, making it available in 6 more theaters a week after its debut — going up from 1,147 to 1,153 on Mar 22nd — only to drop to 152 theaters one week later.
Focus Features is still keeping the film’s production budget under wraps, but any movie that barely manages to gross over $2MM at the box office in three weeks after its debut can already be considered a financial disaster.
The Justice Smith-led film was barely able to make the Top 10 box office chart, debuting in ninth place and losing out to Mark Wahlberg’s Arthur the King, which also released on the 15th of March, as well as Dune: Part Two in its third weekend, and Kung Fu Panda 4 in it’s second weekend.
Upon release, critics were vocal about their displeasure with The American Society of Magical Negroes. On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film had 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.
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Word of mouth didn’t help the film either. The self-described comedy helmed by debutant director Kobi Libii had already faced scrutiny when the trailer released, shamelessly describing ‘white people’ as “the most dangerous animal on the planet.”
Adding insult to injury, the official trailer for The American Society of Magical Negroes sees Smith being recruited by David Alan Grier’s character because he’s good at making others, specifically white people, feel good — explaining to Smith’s character that white people’s discomfort levels are measured in “white tears.”
![THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGICAL NEGROES - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters March 15 via Focus Features, YouTube](https://boundingintocomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-09-at-19.57.01.png?w=1024)
The official trailer shared to Focus Features’ YouTube channel was met with just over 2 thousand likes and well over 25 thousand dislikes, garnering just above 2 million views on its first day after being posted.
As of writing, however, the trailer has received 10 thousand likes and has been disliked over 147 thousand times, with 7.2 million views in the 3 months since it was first published — which, again, is hardly surprising all things considered.
Even more fascinating is the fact that The American Society of Magical Negroes still has to release internationally. Both IMDb and The Numbers confirm that the film is expected to debut in Germany and the United Kingdom on the 25th and 26th of April, respectively.
The final nail on the coffin is the fact that Focus Features released The American Society of Magical Negroes digitally and on VOD on April 2nd, making it available for audiences to purchase for $29.99 or rent for $19.99. No, seriously.