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'Jobs' bio-pic turns in disappointing opening weekend

The movie about the Apple co-founder brings in an estimated $6.7 million, well below the $8 million to $9 million the film's distributor expected.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
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Steven Musil
2 min read
Ashton Kutcher piloted "Jobs" to seventh place on its opening weekend in theaters. Five Star Feature Films

Movie-goers were not fans of Steve Jobs this weekend.

"Jobs," the movie starring Ashton Kutcher as the Apple co-founder, brought in an estimated $6.7 million this weekend, according to Box Office Mojo, well below the $8 million to $9 million its distributor had projected for the movie's opening weekend. The movie opened in 2,381 locations but came in a disappointing seventh place against "The Butler" and "We're The Millers."

"While it was never expected to match 'The Social Network,' it's still very disappointing to note that the Steve Jobs biopic earned less than one-third as much as the Facebook story," Box Office Mojo concluded.

While the film did not meet the expectations of its distributor, Open Road Films, the movie did succeed at recouping more than half of its reported budget of $12 million.

Box office receipts for the movie, which has a 25 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, likely suffered from lackluster reviews, including one from The New York Times that pronounced the bio-pic as having "all the sex appeal of a PowerPoint presentation." The Washington Post noted that director Michael Stern's effort spends "way too much time on backroom personnel dealings than on encounters that might help us understand, on a deep level, the title character."

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who is serving as a consultant on a competing project penned by "Social Network" screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, laid at least some of the blame at Kutcher's Birkenstocks.

"I suspect a lot of what was wrong with the film came from Ashton's own image of Jobs," the Woz told Gizmodo.

Read CNET's movie review: While 'Jobs' fawns over subject, film falls flat