Amy Winehouse Biopic ‘Back to Black’ Has a Disappointing Opening Weekend

Paul Grein
·2 min read
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Back to Black, a biopic based on the life of acclaimed singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, grossed a disappointing $2.85 million in its first weekend at the domestic (U.S. and Canada) box office, according to boxofficemojo.com.

That put it in sixth place for the weekend, and in third place among debuting films. The weekend leader was IF ($35 million in its first weekend), followed by Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ($26 million in its second weekend), The Strangers: Chapter 1 ($12 million in its first weekend), The Fall Guy ($8.5 million in its third weekend) and Challengers ($2.9 million in its fourth weekend).

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This year’s top-grossing biopic, Bob Marley: One Love, grossed $33.6 million in its first weekend, which was the three-day President’s Day weekend in February. (For a direct, apples-to-apples comparison to the Winehouse film, the Bob Marley biopic grossed $28.7 million in the Friday to Sunday period.)

Marisa Abela stars as Winehouse in Back to Black, which was directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and written by Matt Greenhalgh. That same director/writer team collaborated on Nowhere Boy, a 2009 film about the early life of John Lennon. (Taylor-Johnson’s biggest hit to date as a director is Fifty Shades of Grey.)

Winehouse released just two albums in her lifetime — Frank (released in October 2003) and Back to Black (October 2006). The latter album was a global smash, reaching No. 1 on the Official U.K. Album Chart and No. 2 on the Billboard 200. It produced the hit “Rehab,” which made the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Grammys for record and song of the year.

Winehouse won five Grammys in 2008, which enabled her to tie the record at the time for most Grammys won by a female artist in one year. (That record has since been eclipsed, first by Beyoncé in 2010 and then by Adele in 2012). Winehouse was just 27 when she died of alcohol poisoning in July 2011. She won a sixth Grammy posthumously in February 2012 for “Body and Soul,” a collab with Tony Bennett, who was a big admirer.

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