Poll: Did James Franco’s Oscar fiasco hurt ‘Your Highness’?

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Many box-office pundits expected ‘Your Highness’ to earn at least $15 million over its debut weekend, but it reaped only a lowly $9.4 million.

Citing James Franco‘s recent disaster on the Oscars’ stage, the Wrap wonders if his ‘Hindenburg of a hosting performance’ at the Kodak Theatre is to blame. Phil Contrino, editor of BoxOffice, told the site: ‘I think we’d be looking at ‘Your Highness’ totally differently if he didn’t do the Oscars. Usually there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but this is the rare case where there is.’

Of course, lousy reviews might be to blame for the film’s poor ticket sales too. ‘Your Highness’ scored 26 at RottenTomatoes and 31 at Metacritic. USA Today called it ‘a royal failure for James Franco.’ The New York Times said, ‘ ‘Your Highness’ is a Cheech and Chong movie in period drag, so it’s no wonder it goes up in smoke.’ The Times was much more kind, calling it ‘a sometimes witless and sometimes winning comedy.’

-- Tom O’Neil