Most of the news coming from the Justin Bieber-zone involves his recent announcements of his own retirement from music, but other bad news for Beliebers also came forth on Friday: The pop star's newest film was a relative flop.
Believe, which was released on Christmas Day, brought in only $1.25 million in tickets sales that day, coming out to a total of about $1,200 a theater, according to The Wall Street Journal. There are two angles from which can look at this total as a failure. For one, it placed 13th overall among films on Christmas (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug brought in $10 million despite being several weeks old). More relevantly, Bieber's last film, Never Say Never, took in $12 million during its opening day. Estimates suggest that the film might not get past $25 million overall in theaters, which would leave it about $50 million short of Never Say Never.
Believe has some possible positives in its future however. The film hasn't been released outside of the United States yet, and the pop star certainly has fans around the world that could boost ticket sales when it spreads. The film had relatively low expectations to begin with, according to a source, and accordingly also packed a low budget; somewhere between $4 and $5 million.
Either way, some are suggesting that the low turnout for Believe is another indication that Bieber is on his way out...something that isn't true. As Rap Genius indicated through its link scheme, and as internet analytics have proven, Bieber remains one of the most-searched individuals and most popular on social media. It'll take more than one flop of a film to sink his ship.
