Football knows box office—at the stadium, not the cinema.

Concussion opened to disastrous ticket sales at theaters across North America this holiday weekend. BoxOfficeMojo.com projects a sixth-place finish for the Bennet Omalu biopic starring Will Smith. It finished fifth on Christmas Day but slipped in the standings as the weekend progressed. By Sunday, Concussion ranked as seventh best at the box office.

One headline maintained “‘Concussion’ Could Change the Way Youth Football Is Played Forever,” while another proclaimed: “Why the Movie ‘Concussion’ Spells Trouble for the NFL—and Moral Angst for the Rest of Us.” But the heady expectations surrounding the film met the hard reality of public indifference toward the crusading cause of Concussion.

The film receives widespread criticism for its deviance from the facts 
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