Man Down! Shia LaBeouf film sells just one ticket in UK opening weekend

Shia LaBeouf's latest film Man Down sold just one ticket and grossed £7 in its opening weekend in the UK.

While there aren't many movies that break box office records in their first weekend, it is a particularly bad result for the war drama, also starring Gary Oldman and Kate Mara.

The film opened at just one UK cinema, the Reel Cinema in Burnley, and grossed just £7 pounds - less than the price of one ticket in London.

And according to consumer behaviour analysts ComScore, it is even less than the cost of an average ticket in the UK, priced at £7.21.

"Poor Shia," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore.

"That opening could be in the Guinness World Records or something."

Or something.

The truth is, the Dito Montiel-directed story of a war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not the first movie to sell just one ticket at the UK box office.

In 2004, Polish film My Nikifor scored the same £7 during its entire run, even after winning an award in its home country.

And nor is LaBeouf the first Hollywood A-lister to suffer box office humiliation in the UK.

Emma Watson, Uma Thurman, Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry and Morgan Freeman all starred in movies which made less than £100 at the box office - in total.

All of these commercial flops went on to fare fairly better on DVD, Blu-ray and video on demand, but never enough to cover production costs and avoid net loss.

Man Down opened at the Venice Film Festival last year to boos and walkouts from the audience.

According to movie review website Roger Ebert, the film explores sensitive issues such as PTSD and the horrors of war in a "vague and confusing" way.

The Guardian gave it two stars, calling the film "irredeemable" despite LaBeouf's "compelling" performance.

It isn't the first time LaBeouf has collaborated with Italian director Montiel, having starred in his critically panned film A Guide To Recognising Your Saints in 2006.

On the plus side, movies that fare poorly at the box office do at least get publicity for it, according to ComScore,

"There could be a silver lining to those seven pounds," Dergarabedian told Variety.

As for LaBeouf, the 30-year-old actor has little to worry about.

Apart from his personal and artistic tantrums, the star had a good year in 2016 and was praised for his performance in Andrea Arnold's coming-of-age drama American Honey, which competed for the Palme d'Or in Cannes.

Man Down launches on DVD and Blu-ray next month.