Battle of the Year (film)

Battle of the Year is a 2013 American 3D dance film directed by Benson Lee. The film was released on September 20, 2013 through Screen Gems and stars Josh Holloway, Chris Brown, Laz Alonso, Caity Lotz, and Josh Peck.

Battle of the Year is based upon Lee's award-winning 2008 documentary Planet B-Boy, about the b-boying competition of the same name. The feature film includes cinematography by Vasco Nunes, Lee's director of photography on the original documentary.

Variety magazine listed Battle of the Year as one of "Hollywood's biggest box office bombs of 2013" earning just $16.5 million against a $20 million production budget (excluding advertising and marketing budget).

Plot
Dante Graham enlists Jason Blake to coach the United States' b-boy team to compete in the Battle of the Year, as the US has not won in 15 years. Blake puts together a team of the best b-boys across America à la Dream Team. After overcoming their differences and learning to work as a team, the Dream Team makes it to the semi-finals, beats the reigning champion French team and finds themselves against the favorites, the Koreans. Ultimately, they lose by one point. Blake resolves to resume training as soon as possible to win next year.

Cast

 * Josh Holloway as Jason Blake
 * Chris Brown as Rooster
 * Josh Peck as Franklyn
 * Laz Alonso as Dante Graham
 * Caity Lotz as Stacy
 * Jon "Do Knock" Cruz as Do Knock
 * Ivan "Flipz" Velez as Flipz
 * Richard Carmelo Soto as Abbstarr
 * Terrence J as Himself
 * Sway Calloway as Himself
 * Anis Cheurfa as Anis
 * Weronika Rosati as Jolene
 * Alex Martin as Punk
 * Dominic Sandoval as Grifter
 * Steve Terada as Sight
 * Victor Kim as Aces
 * Jesse "Casper" Brown as Rebel
 * David "Kid David" Shreibman as Kid
 * Luis "Luigi" Rosado as Bambino

Development
Film company Screen Gems first began planning for a feature film adaptation of Lee's documentary Planet B-Boy in 2009 after discovering that while interest in breakdancing had declined in the United States, it still enjoyed popularity in other countries. Chris Brown and Josh Holloway were announced as being attached to the project in October 2011. Filming began in late 2011 in Los Angeles, with more filming taking place in Montpellier, France.

Marketing
The first trailer for Battle of the Year was released in July 2013, with Adam Chitwood, Associate Editor of Collider stating that "if B-boy competitions are your thing I assume you'll have some interest in Battle of the Year." Screen Crush commented that the 3D aspect "could be a lot of fun with a film like this" but questioned whether the film would stand out against "an A-list title".

Reception
The film was universally panned by film critics; it currently holds a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 52 reviews with an average rating of 3.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "With a hopelessly hokey plot and unintentionally hilarious dialogue, Battle of the Year is flimsy even by the standards of the dance movie genre."

Chris Brown was nominated for Worst Supporting Actor in the 34th Golden Raspberry Awards for his work in the film, but lost the award to Will Smith for After Earth.

Box office
The film was a significant box office bomb grossing roughly $16 million and failed to recoup its budget of $20 million.