Despite its highly publicized production and release, the Tupac Shakur biopic saw a 78 percent drop in ticket sales between its first and second weeks. Forbes reports that the film is now expected to make $50 to $55 million in the U.S. and Canada, coming in just slightly above its $40 million production cost.
The huge drop in box office numbers is being attributed to the film’s negative reviews and a handful of controversies. Several people have spoken out against the film’s portrayal of the rapper, including Jada Pinkett-Smith, who counted Shakur as a close friend. She responded to the film on Twitter, writing, "The reimagining of my relationship to Pac has been deeply hurtful."
On June 23, writer Kevin Powell filed a lawsuit against the film’s creators, claiming that they used material from three Vibe magazine articles he wrote about Shakur in the ’90s. However, in establishing a copyright infringement claim, Powell, a founding member of Vibe, stated in his complaint that the articles in question contained “fictional characters and reworked narratives.”
In a Facebook post, Powell wrote that he is “seeking justice and a resolution in this matter that is fully fair to me and all the work I’ve done throughout the years, as an author and protector of the Tupac Shakur narrative.” As of this writing, Vibe has yet to respond to Powell’s claims that his original articles contained embellishments of fact.
