Grimsby set to be Sacha Baron Cohen's biggest box office flop

It fell behind both 10 Cloverfield Lane and Deadpool at the US box office

While Sacha Baron Cohen may be furiously promoting his latest film Grimsby - from appearing at the Oscars as Ali G to doing a Reddit “ask me anything” - it doesn't seem to be having much impact on the film’s box office takings.

According to Deadline, the film - retitled The Brothers Grimsby in the US - is set to take just $3.1 million (£2.2 million) from 2,235 cinemas in its debut weekend, making it a career box-office low for the comedian.

In comparison, Borat made $26.5 million and The Dictator made $17.4 million in their opening weekends. However, Grimsby faced R-Rated competition from the surprise release of 10 Cloverfield Lane and the on-going success of Deadpool, expected to take $24.5 million and $10.5 million respectively.

The report details how the film may have been 'too British' for marketing material and featured Mark Strong prominently, Strong himself not being a big box office draw.

Deadline also says that Sony spent over $7.7 million on TV spots in the last week, aimed particularly at younger audiences.

In the UK, where Grimsby was released a week earlier, the film also failed to light up the box office, taking in just £1,928,789 million from 522 sites, falling behind Deadpool which remained champion of the box office week with £2,987,877.