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    Americans Have No Idea Who Robbie Williams Is: Better Man's Box Office Flop [OC]
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    Americans Have No Idea Who Robbie Williams Is: Better Man’s Box Office Flop [OC]

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    35 Comments

    1. Zinjifrah on

      I read the title and thought, “Of course I know who Robin Williams is.” And that’s as much as I know about Robbie Williams.

    2. thenewbritish on

      I would say the more someone is googled, the fewer people know about that person before the search if we’re taking those search results without modifiers.

      It’s more like Americans don’t CARE who Robbie Williams is.

    3. BasqueInTheSun on

      When I saw the commercial, I thought it was a documentary on Robin Williams. He was hairy, so I thought the monkey twist was kind of interesting. But then I got confused because Robin Williams was not a singer. Anyways, no plans of watching this movie.

    4. Special_Wishbone_812 on

      I will admit to not knowing much about Robbie Williams minus that he’s a singer and British, but the ads for the movie alone gave me all the information I needed to know I didn’t want to see it.

    5. LukasKhan_UK on

      I’m not sure why people are so surprised by this, during the height of his popularity it was often reported how much trouble he had when trying to break America

    6. halfslices on

      I know exactly who he is, but I don’t give a shit… but the movie looked fucking stupid.

    7. diemos09 on

      For Americans, Robbie Williams was a one-hit wonder singer, that hit being, “Millennium”. Long forgotten.

    10. Schoggi_Glock on

      Correct me if I’m wrong, but the titles of the plots and the title of the post looks grossly misleading. How are you making the jump from “x is searched less in country A than B” to “people in country A do not know x”?

    11. bolonomadic on

      I’m Canadian and I do know who Robbie Williams is. I like several of his songs. But I don’t care about him enough to go to the cinema.

    13. Goodkoalie on

      Only through Reddit topics about the movie flopping did I find out it wasn’t a planet of the apes spinoff 💀

    14. all_akimbo on

      Used to spend time with a lot of Brits while living in another country. They were always talking about him and were mystified that we literally had no idea who he was.

    15. lolwatokay on

      Your premise isn’t wrong, Americans by and large don’t know Robbie Williams. However, the film hasn’t bombed just because of the United States. It flopped hard in Europe and even in the UK (where it comprised about half of the global take so far) relative to his fame. Its only taken in around $12 mil so far globally against a budget of around $110 mil.

    19. rich90715 on

      I saw the preview in the theaters and I thought it was a joke leading up to an actual movie preview. It reminded me of the movie previews in Tropic Thunder then I realized this was an actual movie. I thought to myself, who the hell actually green lit this thing.

    20. DinsyEjotuz on

      I was in England and Scotland in the late 90s and remember being surprised at how popular he was. I knew him, but that’s it, and it seemed like he was a legit star in the UK.

    21. S7ageNinja on

      Only reason I know who he is is because I worked with a guy that did the mixing on one of his albums. He was shocked when I told him I had never heard of the guy.

    23. sonaut on

      I went to Oktoberfest and everyone was singing “Angels,” and I was like “how does everyone know this song?” Second time I went I was better prepared.

    24. Ccjfb on

      I would guess he was a singer. Couldn’t hum a tune of his. I’m Canadian.

      But also I wouldn’t pay my own money to see that movie.

    25. Sirwired on

      Apparently the movie is actually pretty good. But it is inexplicable that someone paid all that money to make it… it could be the Citizen Kane of musical biopics where the subject is portrayed as a monkey, and it still would have flopped.

      Apparently, even though the Brits know who he is, it’s a flop there too.

    26. HereForTheComments57 on

      I read an article about who he is and apparently he’s huge in the UK and has been for many years. We just have no clue who he is here in the US. And having a monkey play him is an odd choice.

    28. sourtaxi on

      Oh we have an idea who he is. We just don’t care. We have our own former boy band stars to not care about. Why do we need Robbie?

    29. saltyholty on

      When his solo career was booming he was well known as being probably the biggest British star who couldn’t crack America. For any Americans who are unaware, in the 90s and early 00s he wasn’t just a household name, he was one of the most famous people in the country.

      Most people could sing along to Angels as easily as they could Wonderwall:
      [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luwAMFcc2f8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luwAMFcc2f8)

    30. Stado08 on

      I, an American, went through all his top hits on Apple Music. I don’t think I have ever heard any of his songs until I did so. If I have heard his music in the past, I do not remember at all.

    31. KillerKremling on

      They marketed the monkey thing as being this subversive twist on the bio-pic formula, but I kind of just assumed that was cope and the guy just wasn’t famous enough. Vindicated.

    32. Extreme_Rip9301 on

      The only thing I knew about Robbie Williams before this movie was from 2 tv shows (new girl/ted lasso) and they both made a joke about Americans not knowing who Robbie Williams is.

    34. Titdick_McAnusbutts on

      Keep your washed up boy band F list celebs in the UK we have enough over here and literally no one gives a fuck about him

    35. johnny-tiny-tits on

      I’ll admit, I have no fucking idea who that is. I’ve seen multiple posts like this, and still haven’t bothered to look him up. A little scrolling through comments seems to indicate he’s a singer, but how that becomes a monkey movie isn’t any clearer.