Chopper: Why the cult film never broke even at the box office

It’s about to return to cinemas for its 20th anniversary, but why did Australian cult classic Chopper never break even at the box office?

It was the iconic role that turned Eric Bana from a TV comedian into a Hollywood superstar. However the team making 2000s Chopper originally struggled to find an actor to play criminal turned author Mark Brandon ‘Chopper’ Read.

Producer Michele Bennett, along with director Andrew Dominik, spent seven years getting Chopper made.

“We saw a lot of high-profile Australian actors, a lot of character actors,” Bennett tells SMARTdaily.

“It was more a question of who didn’t we see. I would never name names, but they just weren’t Chopper. As soon as we saw Eric’s test it was very different – a still, composed performance for someone who had a comedic background. It had to be him.”

Eric Bana put on 13kg in four weeks to play the older version of Chopper. Picture: Supplied

At the time Bana had turned a career as a comic on Full Frontal doing celebrity imitations into his own TV show, including his bogan parody Poida.

It was Chopper Read himself, familiar with his spot-on impersonation of Ray Martin, who suggested Bana.

“Getting funding for a film about a criminal who was still alive was difficult,” Bennett says. “It wasn’t a popular subject matter.”

Bana, talking exclusively to SMARTdaily, recalls the film being controversial even before its release.

“A lot of people were really angry we were even making the film in the first place. There were a lot of detractors. And I guess it was a risk casting someone who wasn’t known for drama.”

Bana took a trip to Tasmania with Dominik where they spent a weekend with Read (who died in 2013) himself.

“It was invaluable,” Bana says hearing Chopper’s life stories in the flesh.

“I’d already been working on a version of him, but getting to experience his energy first-hand was the thing that was most beneficial. It definitely helped with a lot of nuances of his character.”

Bennett and Dominik secured a deal with Michael Gudinski’s Mushroom Pictures (“he invested in the film, literally and creatively”) and Chopper was made for just under $3.5 million.

Eric Bana as Mark 'Chopper' Read. Picture: Supplied

Michelle Bennett and Michael Gudinski. Picture: Supplied

They even got to film in the old Pentridge Prison and Jika Jika – where many of the key scenes in the film actually took place – before it was demolished to become apartments.

“We shot in H Division,” Bana recalls.

“They were there with earthmoving machinery waiting for us to get out of there. We were the last people in Jika Jika before it was torn down. I remember there was a lot of anxiousness around the fact my son was due in the last week of filming, fortunately he came a week late.”

Bana had four weeks to put on 13kg to play the older Chopper.

As the film stopped production for a month, Bana consumed milk, beer, doughnuts and anything fried he could find.

“I didn’t have the luxury of doing it in a glamorous way, it was a lot of high calorie, high fat junk food in order to get the weight on, it wasn’t pretty.

“These days you’d ask for three or four months to do that, it’s amazing it even showed up on camera – we scheduled the more obvious shirt-off stuff at the very end of the shoot to get the benefit of the weight gain. It’s mad looking back on it.”

Given an 18-plus rating for its graphic violence, the film opened in Australia in August of 2000.

It eventually took $3.9 million at the box office, but a large amount extra had been spent on advertising and production.

“It never broke even, but we were happy at the time because it was R-rated,” Bennett said.

Bana says the film’s success wasn’t about the box office.

“There was a groundswell, it always felt like people were constantly finding it over time, it had this slow burn. Especially overseas. Three and a half people saw it when it was released in America. There was no real moment it ever felt like ‘bang’ and it had gone off.”

However US casting agents saw the film – Bana was cast in 2001’s Black Hawk Down after his work in Chopper, becoming his Hollywood breakthrough.

Eric Bana was known as a TV comedy star before Chopper. Picture: Supplied

Chopper has remained “in the wrecking yard” according to Bana for the last decade, unavailable to watch on streaming services.

While there was a plan to reissue the film for its tenth anniversary, discussions with Gudinski began last year to get the film – one of his proudest career highlights – remastered and back in cinemas, including some unearthed footage in a special featurette.

Covid scuppered the 20th anniversary plans (and has potentially derailed a Sydney cinema season) but the project was one of the last things Gudinski was working on before his passing in March.

“It’s upsetting he isn’t here to see it,” Bennett says, “but I think he’d be thrilled about the way it’s being embraced, 20 years down the track.”

Bennett has spent the last few years working on TV hit Mr Inbetween – one scene in this year’s final series saw the characters watching Chopper.

“Chopper was my first movie, it was such a baptism of fire,” Bennett says.

“Back in the day there was an injunction put on the film just before it came out. I had numerous calls from mates of Chopper through the making of the film … To be able to see it 20 years later without those anxieties is something I’m looking forward to.”

Film nerd Bana, who is doing a Q&A before one session in Melbourne on August 22, is also keen to watch the digitally remastered version on the big screen.

“I’m proud of how unique Chopper is. Any time you can be part of a character that lives on for more than five minutes is a privilege.”

Chopper returns to cinemas nationally for two weeks from August 26, tickets on sale now.