Made for $32 million, world’s biggest box office bomb earned just $918; director disowned it, no OTT platform bought it

World’s biggest box office bomb

United Passions, a 2014 sports drama, has the dubious distinction of being the biggest box office bomb in cinema history. The English-language film produced in France told the story of the origins of football’s governing body, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The film was 90% funded by FIFA. Made on a $29-32 million budget, United Passions had a disastrous time at the ticket counter. United Passions earned just $918 on its opening weekend in the US, the worst opening for any film in history. Overseas, it flopped in most markets and only managed to cross $100,000 in Russia and CIS. In many markets, the film could not even find distributors and was not released or went straight to home media.

Why United Passions was derided

United Passions was slammed for glossing over the various accusations of fraud, backdoor deals, and corruption in FIFA while presenting the executives as heroes. It did not help that the film was released during the infamous 2015 FIFA corruption scandal, which forced many top executives, including FIFA President Sepp Blatter, to resign. Many critics called the film propaganda, with The Guardian describing it as “cinematic excrement” and “self-hagiography”. The film has a dismal 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning it received no favourable reviews.

The fallout

Tim Roth, who starred in the film as Blatter, has gone on record to say that he was worried about why the film did not include anything about corruption in FIFA. In an interview with BBC, the actor said, “I asked them ‘Where’s all the corruption in the script? Where is all the back-stabbing, the deals?’.” The actor said he tried to convey these elements through his performance.

The film’s director, Frédéric Auburtin, was also in the firing line. He, however, distanced himself from the film, almost disowning it. In June 2015, he told The Hollywood Reporter that he tried to strike a balance between “a Disney propaganda film [and] a Costa-Gavras/Michael Moore movie”, but the project eventually was favourable to FIFA. “Now I’m seen as bad as the guy who brought AIDS to Africa or the guy who caused the financial crisis. My name is all over [this mess], and apparently, I am a propaganda guy making films for corrupt people,” said the filmmaker.

United Passions is not available to stream on any platform. According to reports, no platform was willing to buy the film’s digital rights due to the negative publicity surrounding its release.