Following the allegations of drug abuse and violent behavior against him, Jeremy Renner us not doing well at the box office. The actor’s latest movie, Arctic Dogs, has pulled in just $3.1 million so far. Critics have not been kind either, and it looks like it may not bounce back any time soon.
Arctic Dogs was released on Friday, Nov. 1. The children’s animated comedy had an all-star cast, though Renner had top billing. He was joined by Alec Bladwin, Heidi Klum, John Cleese and James Franco, among others. All the ingredients were there for a Halloween weekend hit, yet somehow the movie flopped.
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According to a report by The Numbers, it earned just $700,000 on opening night. Things got a little better as the weekend went on but it still wound up well below what the studio was probably hoping for.
Arctic Dogs was made on a $50 million budget. The movie was produced by AIC Studios, AMBI Media Group and Assemblage Entertainment. It was distributed by Entertainment Studios.
The critical performance has not been much better than the financial one. At the time of this writing, Arctic Dogs has a 20 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, and a 59 percent score with audiences. So far, major reviews have been largely negative as well. Roger Moore of Movie Nation called the film “joyless,” and blogger Rendy Jones wrote, “Kids, if your parents put this on for you, they clearly don’t love you.”
This film flop comes in the wake of even more shocking developments in Renner’s personal life. The actor is currently locked in a custody battle with his ex-wife, Sonni Pacheco, who claims that Renner is an unfit parent. She filed court documents — obtained by the Daily Mail — which claim that Renner has repeatedly used drugs in front of their 6-year-old daughter, thrown wild “sex parties” while she is in the house and even fired a gun in her bedroom.
Pacheco provided text messages to support her claims, among other evidence. She also enlisted other women who have had relations with Renner to testify, providing signed affidavits stating that he has been violent and irresponsible.
Carmen Orford, described as Renner’s ex-girlfriend, claimed that he had left unattended baggies of cocaine around the house, within 6-year-old Ava’s reach. Orford said that the toddler was sometimes unattended for hours, or kept upstairs with a nanny while X-rated parties raged downstairs. She even recalled one occasion when lines of cocaine sat on the bathroom counter for hours, right where Ava could have reached them.
Meanwhile, Pacheco and one of the family’s nannies have both testified that Renner threatened her with a gun, and openly discussed a murder-suicide. He reportedly said that “it was better that Ava had no parents than to have [Sonni Pacheco] as a mother,” and fired a gun into the ceiling of Ava’s room. He also allegedly stuck the weapon in his own mouth in the midst of such a rage.
Renner is still denying all of Pacheco’s claims and fighting to keep partial custody of Ava. Still, it seems possible that his personal turmoil is effecting his movie’s success.
