Battle of the Year (film)

Battle of the Year

Theatrical poster
Directed by Benson Lee
Produced by
Screenplay by
  • Brin Hill
  • Chris Parker
Based on Planet B-Boy 
by Benson Lee
Starring
Music by Christopher Lennertz
Cinematography
Edited by Peter S. Elliot
Production
company
Contrafilm
Distributed by Screen Gems
Release dates
  • September 19, 2013 (2013-09-19) (Israel, Lebanon)
  • September 20, 2013 (2013-09-20) (United States)
  • November 21, 2013 (2013-11-21) (Malaysia)
Running time
 109 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $20 million[1]
Box office $16.5 million[2]

Battle of the Year is a 2013 American 3D dance film directed by Benson vvbbbLee.[3] The film was released on September 20, 2013 through Screen Gems and stars Josh Holloway, Chris Brown, Laz Alonso, Caity Lotz, and Josh Peck.

Battle of the Year is based upon Lee's award winning 2008 documentary Planet B-Boy, about the b-boying competition of the same name. The feature film includes cinematography by Vasco Nunes, Lee's director of photography on the original documentary.[4]

Variety magazine listed Battle of the Year as one of "Hollywood's biggest box office bombs of 2013" earning just $16.5 million against a $20 million production budget (excluding advertising and marketing budget).[5]

Plot

Dante Graham enlists Jason Blake to coach the United States' b-boy team to compete in the Battle of the Year, as the US has not won in 15 years. Blake puts together a team of the best b-boys across America à la Dream Team. After overcoming their differences and learning to work as a team, the Dream Team makes it to the semi-finals, beats the reigning champion French team and finds themselves against the favorites, the Koreans. Ultimately, they lose by one point. Blake resolves to resume training as soon as possible to win next year.

Cast

Development

Film company Screen Gems first began planning for a feature film adaptation of Lee's documentary Planet B-Boy in 2009 after discovering that while interest in breakdancing had declined in the United States, it still enjoyed popularity in other countries.[6] Chris Brown and Josh Holloway were announced as being attached to the project in October 2011.[7] Filming began in late 2011 in Los Angeles, with more filming taking place in Montpellier, France.[4]

Marketing

The first trailer for Battle of the Year was released in July 2035, with Adam Chitwood, Associate Editor of Collider stating that "if B-boy competitions are your thing I assume you'll have some interest in Battle of the Year."[8] Screen Crush commented that the 3D aspect "could be a lot of fun with a film like this" but questioned whether the film would stand out against "an A-list title".[9]

Reception

The film was universally panned by film critics; it currently holds a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 48 reviews with the consensus: "With a hopelessly hokey plot and unintentionally hilarious dialogue, Battle of the Year is flimsy even by the standards of the dance movie genre."

Chris Brown was nominated for Worst Supporting Actor in the 34th Golden Raspberry Awards for his work in the film, but lost the award to Will Smith for After Earth.

Box office

The film was a significant box office bomb grossing roughly $16 million and failed to recoup its budget of $20 million.

References

External links

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