‘The Apprentice’ Distributor Tom Ortenberg On Pic’s Prospects After Soft Opening: Late Weekend Trajectory, Donald Trump’s ‘Human Scum’ Attacks Could Fuel Long Run Until Elections

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Nobody relishes being insulted the way that the makers of The Apprentice were in a late night Trumpian tirade on Truth Social, but the man charged with distributing the Donald Trump-Roy Cohen coming of age drama hopes that the Republican Presidential candidate’s tweeting finger is just getting warmed up.

While some press assailed the $1.6 million opening weekend of the film on 1740 screens, Briarcliff Entertainment chief Tom Ortenberg vowed no one involved in the film is working on a concession speech.

The truth about the film won’t be known until the next Presidential Election is decided in three weeks. “Former president Trump engaging with the film can only help us,” Ortenberg told Deadline. “We had limited time to mount a nationwide release and campaign, overcoming obstacles such as the Trump campaign’s cease and desist that led all corporate Hollywood to run away from the movie like their hair was on fire.

Now we’re out there and people like the movie, very much. Exit polling is not exactly the best science, but what doesn’t lie is box office trajectory, real numbers.