Facebook fanatics
Facebook film ‘The Social Network' has opened to $23m at the box office in the US this weekend, proving almost as popular as its website counterpart.
According to The Los Angeles Times, the film took twice the amount the other two new releases, ‘Let Me In' and ‘Case 39', pulled in.
The much-hyped Facebook flick on the whole received glowing reviews ahead of its general release but there was controversy surrounding the portrayal of Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg.
The film, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin (the bloke who write The West Wing) took just under the $25m it was predicted to make in its opening weekend.
However, it will probably not be much of a disappointment for Sony and its financing partner Relativity Media which forked out a relatively measly $40m to make the film. The worst case scenario would mean it was a one weekend phenomenon and talk of the town but that if it does as well as the real Facebook it could prove a real financial coup.
The audience reportedly gave the film a B+ rating- so they liked it but were not as effusive as the critics, but the audience was diverse with a slight tilt towards the fairer sex and over 25s.
However, it is not known what Zuckerberg thinks of the on-screen him, played by Jesse Eisenberg, as he is reportedly shown writing the code for the web site in a drunken fever after being dumped by his girlfriend. Some critics have said he comes across as an egomaniac, while one described the on-screen character as a "borderline-autistic conniver" and another a "ruthless and untrustworthy sex maniac".
The Huffington Post poured disdain upon the depiction of the protagonist and said: "Zuckerberg is presented as an alien from a faraway computer programming space, instead of a leading member of an entrepreneurial generation who's grown up with the Internet and now tops Vanity Fair's ranking of the New Establishment, ahead of Steve Jobs, the Google guys and Rupert Murdoch."
Other viewers have criticised the film's portrayal of women as apart from the lawyer and Erica (Zuckerberg's ex girlfriend,) most of the females can be seen as ‘props' or extras, "bussed in to fill the roles of doting groupies, vengeful sluts, or dumpy, feminist killjoys," according to The Daily Beast.
And just in case Zuckerberg hadn't had enough of the limelight, (or you can't get enough of him,) he is to be coloured yellow and featured in The Simpsons, according to The Daily Mail.
The billionaire, who leant his voice to the show, will reportedly star in an episode alongside Bill Gates and Richard Branson, who are all manning stands at an entrepreneurial show.
The episode if said to based around Nelson Muntz, who sets up his own successful business and mulls dropping out of school to live off his wealth. Lisa Simpson becomes an investor and begs him to stay in school, dragging Nelson along to an entrepreneur show which features Zuckerberg who tells them both neither him, Gates or Branson finished university.
