Hit or Miss at the Box Office?

Will Smith has been in the spotlight this past year, and not in a good light. At this year's Oscars, Smith casually stormed the stage after comedian Chris Rock made a joke towards Jada Pinkett Smith, his wife. For the next ten years, Will Smith is banned from attending the ceremony.

Now, the actor is losing sleep over his upcoming historical movie, Emancipation, which is set to be released December 3, 2022 on in theaters and on AppleTV December 9. Smith plays escaped American slave, Gordon, also known as “Whipped Peter.”

The reason behind his worrying comes from his actions at the recent movie award ceremony.

While audience members and viewers supported his actions or believed his actions were uncalled for, will it affect his brand new movie?

I do not believe that the movie is going to take a negative hit. Instead, I believe that it will do relatively well. Celebrities who are usually in hot water may see the hit for a few weeks. After those few short weeks, everything goes back to normal for the stars. I see the controversy usually doing more good than harm to celebrity careers.

As we have seen, cancel culture does not last a long period of time for those with power. This is why I think the film will see no financial damage while in theatres.

But, there is always that chance that it hurt the movie’s box office. The once-adored Will Smith became public enemy number one. At one point, Apple was considering pushing the release date to 2023.

Smith said, "The only discomfort my heart has around that is that so many people have done spectacular work on this film. My hope is that my team isn't penalized at all for my actions."

Only time will tell if the slap heard across the globe will come back to haunt Will Smith’s career.