Assange biopic tops film flops list

WIKILEAKS drama ‘ The Fifth Estate’ is the biggest film flop of 2013, according to the ‘ Forbes’. It condemned the Julian Assange biopic after setting its reported $ 28 million (£ 17m) budget against its global box office takings of $ 6 million (£ 3.7m).

It used these figures to calculate that Benedict Cumberbatch’s drama earned back only 21 per cent of what it cost to make.

Sylvester Stallone’s ‘ Bullet to the Head’ and Harrison Ford’s ‘ Paranoia’ are ranked second and third in its turkey Top 10.

Jason Statham vehicle ‘ Parker’ follows at four, while Mark Wahlberg’s political drama Broken City’ is ranked at five.

The countdown also includes ‘ R. I. P. D.’, a critically reviled supernatural comedy whose 60 per cent return on its $ 130m (£ 80m) budget sees it chart at nine.

There is no placing though for Disney’s ‘ The Lone Range’, adjudged to have broken even despite its poor performance at the US box office.

“While the film was undoubtedly a loser for Disney... it actually earned more than its production budget,” the publication declares.

“The film brought in $ 260 million [£ 160m] on a budget of $ 215 million [£ 132m]. The 10 films on our list didn’t even earn back their budgets.”

The list does not take into account additional costs incurred for marketing, which the magazine claims can sometimes equal a film’s total budget.

Assange distanced himself from Bill Condon’s film, describing it as “wretched” work “of debased truth” in a letter to the actor playing him.

The outspoken founder of whistleblowing site WikiLeaks has been sequestered at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012.