‘Den of Thieves 2’ Steals Box Office Crown With $15.5 Million, Robbie Williams Biopic ‘Better Man’ Tanks With $1 Million Debut

https://variety.com/2025/film/box-office/box-office-den-of-thieves-2-first-place-robbie-williams-biopic-better-man-bombs-1236272480/

40 comments

  1. Shame that Robbie Williams’ biopic tanked in the UK too – $110m is an insane movie budget for a biopic though for an artist with no presence in North America or AFAIK Asia

    EDIT: Meant no disrespect regarding his fame in Asia, just half remember some news piece about his efforts to promote himself there when he was already a megastar in the UK. Is famous but not a huge star fair to say?

  2. Butler specializes in these B or maybe high B movies. Den of Thieves 1 was pretty good. Not a masterpiece but quite entertaining. I see also they’ve started to promote Greenland in the streaming purchase market, smart to jump on the Greenland news cycle.

    Greenland is pretty good too, if you’re looking for that kind of movie I think you’ll be happy, again knowing it’s a B movie and isn’t going to win awards or be the top film of the year. Butler and Baccarin seem very comfortable in their roles and each gets a chance to move the story along at different spots.

    Butler definitely sets a bit of a different path in how to make a living in movies. I almost want to give him the “working actor” label that Shatner gives to himself. Butler isn’t doing the star route, he’s just in 1-2 movies a year in leading roles and producing enough of them to ensure he gets a good piece of the money.

  3. You’re telling me the movie of a semi-famous musician who is played my a digital/cartoon ape dancing and singing with humans, didn’t work out?

  4. Better Man might be a fantastic movie, but the problem is (at least in the US) is that most people have no idea who Robbie Williams is.

  5. The marketing on Better Man In the U.S. was insane for a biopic of a hardly known singer. This shows that people can see through all the marketing induced “buzz” and rotten tomatoes scores in every advertisement. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a shit movie.

  6. That Robbie Williams movie is odd. I know he’s famous in the UK, and it’s fine to release it here in the US too obviously.

    But there was SO MUCH marketing for it… I saw more commercials for this movie than any other one in a while. Did they really think Americans were going to see a weird musical biopic about someone they had never heard of?

  7. I’m 35-years-old. Who even is Robbie Williams and who wants to watch a fully cgi musical? We’re losing small indie dramas for this?

  8. I do not get the appeal of Better Man AT ALL. I’m sure there’s passionate fans of his all over the world but this movie REEKS of something Alan Partridge would distance himself from. A ridiculous joke. Maybe he’s ‘Big in Japan.’ I don’t know.

  10. Do you know people who love The Greatest Showman? Like people you wouldn’t expect but have watched it like hundreds of times? They just need that crowd to make the connection that they need to see the next movie by that director and they’ll have a hit. Do I think a monkey Robbie Williams biopic is going to reach those people? No, but I don’t know why Greatest Showman did either.

  11. I really don’t think Robbie Williams would get stopped on the streets of the US, fairly unknown in these parts. This movie has no chance.

  12. Robbie Williams Biopic would have made sense at his peak. He kinda faded badly in the past few years.

  13. I don’t know how the fuck that Robbie Williams one got made. Why in the hell is he a chimp?

  15. How about because it looks like the biggest piece of crap in a while

  16. Don’t see Robbie Williams being much of a draw in the U.S.. Robbie Williams as a chimp would be even less.

  17. 🗣️ the US isn’t the market for a Robbie Williams movie, we don’t know who the fuck he is

  19. My family saw the trailer for Better Man when we saw Gladiator 2, we laughed so hard we got yelled at

  20. We don’t know who Robbie Williams is and we don’t know why we should care

  22. Better Man got audible groans during its trailer. Most don’t know who he is and then he’s an ape? Like tf cane up with this.

  23. The Ego Has Landed- I had that CD 25 years ago. Emphasis on the word had.

  25. Who the fuck wants to see a Robbie Williams movie where he is a monkey?

    It’s a dumb idea for a movie

  26. Hey Robbie! You’ve tried for 25 years to make it in America. It’s. Never. Gonna. Happen.

  27. Better man is like that time Apple tried to force U2 down our throats

  28. The US is not the market for a Robbie Williams biopic. lol

  29. I didn’t even know that movie was supposed to be a biopic lol

  31. Hard to believe in 1 million for a Robbie biopic, even his family probably didn’t want to go see that

  32. I mean, I’d honestly say the Better Man advertising made it seem pretty cringe and silly. It sorta gave me the whole, Cat movie energy. I’m sure it’s a much better movie than that, but you know what I mean.

  33. Not only do I not wanna see another music biopic- I sure as hell don’t want to see a horrible CGI monkey/man ever

  35. Yet another biopic but with someone I’ve never heard of and with a bad CGI chimp for no reason. What could go wrong?

  37. Arent there like a million stories more interesting than Robbie Williams biopic?

  39. Better man was amazing. Highly recommend for anyone shitting on it. Didn’t know who he was and loved it.

  40. Based on the trailer and having no idea who Robbie Williams is …I thought it was a musical about some kind of weirdly evolved ape that can sing real good and is some how a “Better Man”?

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