? Steve Jobs? was too brainy, too cold, and too expensive to make it a success. Moreover, Michael Fassbender, the electrifying Irish actor who replaced Bale as Jobs, lacks the drawing power to open the picture.
After racking up the year?s best per-screen average in its opening weekend and doing strong business in limited expansion, ? Steve Jobs? hit a stumbling block in its national release. It debuted to a measly $7.3 million, only a little more than the $6.7 million that ?Jobs,? a critically derided film about the iPhone father with Ashton Kutcher ,made in its initial weekend. So what went wrong? Universal believes that the picture can recover. Studio executives note that it is popular in major urban markets like San Francisco and New York, and argue that the film?s A minus CinemaScore means word-of-mouth will be strong. If it can stay in theaters until Golden Globe and Oscar nominations are announced, they believe it can rebound.