Anti-Iran Hollywood project flops at box office
The movie ‘Desert Warrior’, produced with a staggering $150 million budget and a narrative against Iran, suffered a significant defeat at the global box office.
Despite the presence of stars such as Ben Kingsley and Anthony Mackie, the cinematic work failed to attract audiences even in the Middle East markets and Saudi Arabia.
In the American market, the project only generated $600,000 in sales, which is considered a financial disaster for a film of this scale. In Saudi Arabia, the movie did not even make it to the top-selling list and ranked at the bottom of the chart.
Many experts believe that the Saudi cinema was confused in identifying the film's identity and presented a Hollywood narrative in an awkward format that lacks appeal for any group of Eastern or Western audiences.
The ambitious project, after five years of controversial production, has effectively lost its chance of profitability as negative feedbacks in test screenings and very low ratings on movie review sites showed that spending huge amounts without considering the dramatic quality and audience taste cannot guarantee the box office success of Desert Warrior.
Another point could be the political agenda of the film, as it has been described as an anti-Iranian work focusing on the attack on Iran during the Sassanid era, which could lead to the display of Arabian civilization and history being overshadowed by its political goals, especially during the days of US and Israeli war against Iran, and may deter audiences seeking to watch Arabic life and identity.