METALLICA's 'Through The Never' Has Earned Less Than $3 Million So Far

According to Box Office Mojo, METALLICA's new movie, "Metallica Through The Never", expanded to 589 locations on October 4, but in the process lost most of its IMAX screens to "Gravity", the outer-space thriller starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. As a result, it plummeted 56 percent to $697,763. So far, the hybrid concert movie, which was written and directed by Nimród Antal ("Kontroll", "Predators"),has earned just $2.7 million.

"Metallica Through The Never" officially opened on September 27 for an exclusive week-long run on IMAX screens. The film's surreal narrative winds its way through the concert footage, in which a roadie played by Dane DeHaan finds himself in an increasingly hostile urban environment while on a mission for the band.

Financed by the METALLICA members themselves at a budget of $18 million, "Metallica Through The Never" is the first new release via Picturehouse, the full-service independent film marketing and distribution company started in 2005, which reopened its doors with founder Bob Berney at the helm.

Asked if making the movie was worth the financial risk, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told The Quietus: "That remains to be seen. Ask me when I come back and talk about the new record two years from now. I have no idea. I do know that we rarely consider other options, so compromise is not METALLICA's major strength. And I think that the fans hopefully appreciate that if its got the word 'METALLICA' written somewhere on or near it, that it comes from us."

He continued: "Creative experiences aren't really ones we share with anyone other than the closest few that we sort of purposefully let in. So, to sit there and take a bunch of money from a bunch of people to then have them [be] involved in editing and controlling the movie and so on just seemed wrong. That, of course, was before the project ran amok, but they always run amok, so it's nothing new.

"In METALLICA, we don't look at things as… there's a word called 'cross-collaterizing.' You sort of put everything against everything else so it's not [a case of], 'How is the movie going to do, as itself?' It's not like an isolated entity…

"I think nowadays in media it's very much, 'What did it cost? What did they get back? Was it a success? Was it a failure?' It's slightly more complicated than that, and that kind of breaking it down to absolutes really doesn't interest me.

"This is another chapter in METALLICA's existence, and I'm sure that if we don't make all the money back, then, I don't know, [we will in] t-shirt sales seven years down the line. Something good will come in the wake of these projects. It's just sort of how we roll."

The soundtrack, which features a number of METALLICA classics performed live in the movie, was released on September 24. The two-disc CD came out on METALLICA's own label, Blackened Recordings, also in digital and vinyl formats.