‘Entourage’ Bombs At Box Office: Niche Market To Blame?

Entourage came back with a fizzle this weekend, which was something no one anticipated.

In its heyday, Entourage enjoyed a solid run on HBO, giving Adrian Grenier and Jeremy Piven, in particular, some greater face time, and the show served to introduce Ari Gold and company to the larger Hollywood environment. It was one of HBO’s most popular shows, a close rival to Sex And The City. What those behind the new movie failed to realize was that the popularity of a television show does not always translate well on screen — particularly when the television show’s audience was so limited to a particular niche group.

Entourage had an audience that was mostly limited to young men on either coast, men who were used to the speed that a Hollywood lifestyle brings. Entourage did not connect with mainstream viewers — at least, not in the way that Spy’s Melissa McCarthy does. Are the men from Entourage good looking? Absolutely, but being beautiful does not necessarily mean you are appealing. Melissa McCarthy has essentially become an Everyman of sorts, and her appeal crosses most gender and social lines. Entourage had a very specific and targeted audience. That would be one of the reasons why the movie simply did not reach as wide an audience as it had hoped for in its opening weekend.

Here is, perhaps, one of the reasons:

brilliant funny nasty review of #EntourageMovie @aoscott the Screen Is Bigger, but Nothing Is Better http://t.co/2JigIyMZNd

— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) June 6, 2015

According to the latest reviews, the movie was rather stale, though it appears to have appealed to its target audience. That is part of the problem. Entourage never had the wide appeal of Melissa McCarthy, whose new comedy, Spy, appealed to a broad spectrum of audiences, or of a Sex and the City, where every age range of both men and women appeared to have been fans of the series. Entertainment Weekly reviewer Brent Lang noted, “After a five-year absence, the stars of the long-running HBO series Entourage reunited for a big screen bacchanal that was savaged by critics. Entourage will make $US17.8 million over its first five days in theaters and $US10.4 million for the weekend, less than the $US20 million mark that Warner Bros. had hoped to crack. Checking in on the state of Vincent Chase’s career, liver, and sex life set Warner Bros. back a modest $US27 million in production spending.”

What this means for Entourage is that its niche market is, put simply, not enough to sustain the transition to the silver screen. While the show enjoyed a steady fan base during its time on HBO, the niche market that Entourage had is simply not enough for any sort of significant box office payoff. That news is unfortunate, but not wholly unexpected. It would appear that Entourage is representative of a Hollywood where bros are in, women are silent, and where abusive Hollywood agents are the norm.

[Photo by: Kevin Winter / Getty Images Entertainment]