The Shia LaBeouf Movie That Bombed at the Box Office—Literally One Ticket Sold

There was a time when Shia LaBeouf was the undisputed king of the summer blockbuster, anchoring billion-dollar franchises like Transformers and Indiana Jones. However, the trajectory of his career took a sharp and bizarre turn as the 2010s progressed, leading to one of the most embarrassing box office statistics in cinema history.

At one point he decided to pour his energy into bizarre and cryptic performance art projects, which further alienated him from the mainstream machinery of the film industry. As the decade drew to a close, you’d be hard-pressed to have found the actor in a major studio movie, as he starred instead in a string of independent and foreign projects. Whilst this ultimately resulted in more interesting performances from LaBeouf and progressive collaborations with fellow filmmakers, it nonetheless signified a significant shift in the way the film industry and audiences viewed him.

This shift was most brutally demonstrated by the way British audiences treated his 2015 project, leading to one of the lowest opening-weekend turnouts in history. When Man Down, a war thriller with LaBeouf in the lead, premiered in the United Kingdom, it played at only one cinema. Films being shown in a single theater isn’t a completely unheard-of practice; often to accompany a straight-to-digital release, a “token” screening will be picked for the movie to satisfy contractual obligations.

Even as token films go, however, attendance was at an all-time low for this specific release. Reports from the time indicated that only a single ticket was sold during its opening run. To add insult to injury, it is even possible it was a discounted ticket to boot, meaning the box office return was essentially negligible.

Unfortunately, this abysmal UK opening would serve to forecast how well the film would do internationally as well. Despite a cast consisting of heavy hitters like Gary Oldman and Jai Courtney, the film made a meager $167,085 worldwide despite its $3,000,000 budget. The movie itself was an ambitious misfire that audiences simply refused to engage with.

Man Down is a war thriller drama film directed by Dito Montiel and written by Adam G. Simon. The story follows a U.S. Marine who returns from Afghanistan to find his hometown devastated and his wife and son missing. The narrative attempts to blend a post-apocalyptic survival story with a psychological examination of trauma.

The film had its world premiere in the Horizon section at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival on September 6, 2015. It was eventually released on December 2, 2016, by Lionsgate Premiere, to overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of just 16%, based on 55 reviews.

The site’s critics consensus reads: “Well-intentioned but overall misjudged, Man Down makes an unfortunately muddled attempt to mine thoughtful drama out of modern warfare’s emotional wreckage.” Critics were particularly harsh on how the film utilized LaBeouf’s talents. Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter commented that “[Shia LaBeouf’s] performance is over-powered by the film’s grandiose, misplaced ambition to switch back and forth between genres, from the war film to sci fi, from family film to the intimately psychological.”

Others felt the movie exploited the very real trauma of soldiers for cheap entertainment value. Josh Lasser of IGN gave the film a 6.1 out of 10, stating, “Despite the audience knowing what is going to happen in advance of it occurring, and how it is all going to end, the film still manages to elicit a response.” However, Kenji Fujishima of Slant Magazine was far less forgiving in his assessment. He stated, “Sadly, Montiel fails his lead actor, trashing Drummer’s anguish by turning it into a parlor trick, thus denying him the humanity LaBeouf so valiantly tries to convey.”

Despite the rock bottom moment of Man Down, LaBeouf has continued to work in the industry, attempting to rebuild his reputation through method acting and auteur-driven projects. He recently made a high-profile return to the big screen in Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited epic, Megalopolis. In the film, which features an ensemble cast including Adam Driver and Giancarlo Esposito, LaBeouf plays the character Clodio Pulcher.

Beyond Megalopolis, LaBeouf has also focused on more spiritual roles, such as his portrayal of the title character in Abel Ferrara’s Padre Pio. During the production of that film, the actor converted to Catholicism, a personal shift he has discussed in various interviews. His personal life has also seen significant developments, including his marriage to actress Mia Goth, with whom he shares a child.

While he has largely stepped away from the blockbuster action roles that defined his early twenties, he remains a figure of intense public fascination. His career trajectory serves as a complex case study of fame, talent, and the consequences of personal turmoil in the public eye.

Tell us if you think LaBeouf’s performance in Man Down deserved better than a single ticket sale in the comments.