Fred Durst and John Travolta’s ‘The Fanatic’ trending again due to how little it made at the box office

22 February, 2024

John Travolta and Fred Durst

John Travolta and Fred Durst’s box office bomb The Fanatic is trending again, with people scarcely believing how little money the movie made.

Released in 2019, the film, which the Limp Bizkit frontman directed, took a paltry $3,153 (£2,489) at the box office in its opening day. It is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

The film may have barely been seen in theatres at the time, but with the title trending on social media over recent days, it does continue to have an unfortunate life of its own, some five years later.

One account on X, formerly Twitter, wrote: “Just learned there is a movie that Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst wrote and directed starring John Travolta as an autistic stalker, and it only made $3000 at the box office.”

Among the replies, another poster wrote: “Durst can’t write music, what made him think he could write a movie?”

“It’s one of the most bizarre movies I’ve ever seen,” replied another. “Travolta is completely immersed in one of the worst and most offensive performances you’ll ever see. Absolutely baffling work of art.”

One person commented: “I caught the premiere of this with John Travolta in attendance. He introduced the film saying “I was really grateful for the opportunity to work on this weird movie, we all came together to make something uh, …yeah, really weird.” and then walked away.”

“The Fanatic is an insane movie. It’s like something you would hallucinate in the throws of scarlet fever,” said another.

The psychological thriller stars Travolta as Moose, an avid movie fan who becomes obsessed with fictional action hero Hunter Dunbar. When he is cheated out of his chance to meet Dunbar, Moose’s actions take a increasingly terrifying turn.

An official synopsis teases that Moose’s fixation turns from “stalking to ambition of destroying the star’s life”.

The movie is said to have been inspired by the real-life story of a fan that once stalked Durst.

Speaking about working on the film, Travolta revealed his admiration for Durst , saying: “It was maybe my favourite experience I’ve had.” The actor then hailed Durst as “so generous” and “such an artist”.

“He allowed me to create a character that no one else would allow,” he continued. “It’s really a wild character and I felt very free to do that.”

In an overwhelmingly negative review, US critic Rex Reed described the film as “a cheap and cheesy disaster”.

“Directed by schlocky hack director Fred Durst from a moronic script by Durst and David Bekerman, The Fanatic is meant to be a scary and touching valentine to the same festering memory of putrid Hollywood as Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but the only thing worth remembering is Travolta’s brave, misguided performance,” wrote Reed.

The post Fred Durst and John Travolta’s ‘The Fanatic’ trending again due to how little it made at the box office appeared first on NME.