The Beaver, an offbeat comedy-drama directed by and co-starring his close friend Jodie Foster earned just $104,000 (Dh381,898) during its first three days of limited release in 22 theatres, its distributor said on Sunday.
Its per-theatre average of $4,745 ranks at No 62 among the 139 limited-release movies tracked this year by Box Office Mojo. Among recent prestige debuts in a similar number of theatres, Black Swan opened to an $80,000 per-theatre average last December and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to $9,900 in March 2010.
The $21 million film will expand across North America on May 20, coinciding with a screening at the Cannes Film Festival, said closely held distributor Summit Entertainment.
Gibson, 55, stars as a suicidal businessman who finds salvation in a furry hand puppet he has salvaged from the trash. Critics were enthusiastic about his performance, pointing to eerie parallels between his character's alcoholic haze and the actor's own real-life problems.
"If you can get past your feelings for the troubled Gibson, you get to watch a high-wire performance of the highest calibre," said Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers.
Filming was completed more than a year ago, but the release was put on hold after audio tapes were leaked last summer of an angry Gibson threatening the mother of his baby daughter as their brief relationship hit the rocks.
It eventually premiered in March at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Texas.
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