| Battle of the Year | |
| Director: | Benson Lee |
| Music: | Christopher Lennertz |
| Cinematography: | Michael Barrett |
| Editing: | Peter S. Elliot |
| Studio: | Contrafilm |
| Distributor: | Screen Gems (through Sony Pictures Releasing[1]) |
| Runtime: | 109 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $20 million |
| Gross: | $16.5 million[2] |
Battle of the Year is a 2013 American 3D dance film directed by Benson Lee.[3] 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 2007 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.[4]
The film released theactrically on September 20, 2013 by Screen Gems, The film was universally panned by critics and audiences alike and was a box-office bomb, grossing $16 million and failed to recoup its budget of $20 million.
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.
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.[5] Chris Brown and Josh Holloway were announced as being attached to the project in October 2011.[6] Filming began in late 2011 in Los Angeles, with more filming taking place in Montpellier, France.
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."[7] 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".[8]
Battle of the Year was universally panned by critics and audiences alike.
The film was grossing roughly $16 million and failed to recoup its budget of $20 million.