Men in Black, Independence Day, I Am Legend: Almost every single Will Smith summer blockbuster has debuted at No. 1 at the box office. Until now. Over the weekend, Will and son Jaden Smith’s sci-fi film After Earth pulled in a paltry $27 million, putting it in a league with epic flops Land of the Lost and John Carter. Even Now You See Me earned more money last weekend; that movie is about teleporting magicians who rob a bank.
Yes, After Earth got terrible reviews, but that doesn’t always guarantee a bomb. (See: Armageddon, which opened at No. 1 in 1998 and has since raked in $500 million worldwide, even though Roger Ebert said it was one of the worst films he’d seen.) The problem may well be traced to the flood of Scientology-laced themes and messages that populate the film—which don’t seem to translate into box-office dollars.
