Box office
Spotlight grossed $45.1 million in the United States and Canada and $53.2 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $98.3 million, against a production budget of $20 million.[3] The Hollywood Reporter calculated the film made a net profit of up to $10 million.[41]
In the opening weekend of its limited release, the film grossed $295,009 from five theaters ($59,002 average), one of the highest per-screen averages of any release of 2015.[42] The film grossed $4.4 million in the first weekend during its wide release, finishing 8th at the box office.[43]
Critical response
Spotlight received widespread critical acclaim. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 97% based on 376 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The website's summary of the critical consensus is that "Spotlight gracefully handles the lurid details of its fact-based story while resisting the temptation to lionize its heroes, resulting in a drama that honors the audience as well as its real-life subjects."[44] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 93 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[45]
Variety's Justin Chang called the film "a superbly controlled and engrossingly detailed account of the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the widespread pedophilia scandals and subsequent cover-ups within the Catholic Church."[46] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal wrote, "To turn a spotlight fittingly on Spotlight, it's the year's best movie so far, and a rarity among countless dramatizations that claim to be based on actual events."[47]
Mark Kermode of The Guardian gave it four out of five stars and praised Ruffalo's performance, writing, "As for Mark Ruffalo, he's the closest thing this ensemble cast has to a star turn, a long-suppressed outburst of emotion providing one of the film's few grandstanding showstoppers."[48] Helen O'Hara of Empire gave the movie four out of five stars and called it a "grown-up film about serious people that mercifully escapes any awards-grabbing platitudes" and "more thrilling than most action movies."[49]
Richard Propes of The Independent Critic gave Spotlight four out of four marks and praised the screenplay and cast: "Spotlight is a nearly perfect example of what happens when the perfect filmmaker works with the perfect script and acquires the perfect cast and crew to bring a story to life".[50]
At the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, Spotlight finished third in the audience balloting for the People's Choice Award.[51]
Comparing Spotlight to The Post, a similar period film about journalists, critic Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com expressed perplexity over critics' muted praise for the latter film, writing that in terms of direction, Spotlight "got praise for doing a tenth of what Steven Spielberg does here".[52][53]
Top ten lists
Spotlight was included on many critics' top-ten lists.[54]
- 1st – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
- 1st – Christoper Orr, The Atlantic
- 1st – Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic
- 1st – Rex Reed, New York Observer
- 1st – Ty Burr, Boston Globe
- 1st – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
- 1st – Stephanie Zacharek, Time
- 1st – Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
- 1st – Kate Erbland, Indiewire
- 1st – Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
- 2nd – Peter Debruge, Variety
- 2nd – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com
- 3rd – Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter
- 3rd – Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
- 3rd – Inkoo Kang, TheWrap
- 3rd – James Berardinelli, Reelviews
- 3rd – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
- 3rd – J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader
- 3rd – A.O. Scott and Stephen Holden, The New York Times
- 4th – Jake Coyle, Associated Press
- 4th – Connie Ogle, Miami Herald
- 4th – Josh Kupecki, Austin Chronicle
- 5th – Anne Thompson, IndieWire
- 5th – Kristopher Tapley, Variety
- 5th – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
- 6th – David Edelstein, New York Magazine
- 6th – Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
- 7th – Justin Chang, Variety
- 8th – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
- 9th – Alonso Duralde, TheWrap
- 10th – Alison Willmore, BuzzFeed
- 10th – Tom Brook, BBC
- 10th – Kyle Smith, New York Post
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Stephen Whitty, The Star-Ledger
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Dana Stevens, Slate.com
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically) – Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
- Best of 2015 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Reactions from the Catholic Church
In general, the film was positively received by the Catholic community. Before its release, Cardinal Sean O'Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston issued a statement in the archdiocese's official newspaper, stating that the "media's investigative reporting on the abuse crisis instigated a call for the Church to take responsibility for its failings and to reform itself—to deal with what was shameful and hidden."[55] O'Malley had not seen the movie at that time but planned to do so.[56]
On November 9, 2015, a review in the Catholic News Service called the film a "generally accurate chronicle" of the Boston scandal, but objected to some of the portrayals and the film's view of the Church.[57] On the Catholic News Service, auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles Robert Barron said that it is "not a bad movie", as it shows how the wider community shares the responsibility for sexual abuse committed by priests, but that the film is wrong to insinuate that the Church has not reformed.[58]
Vatican Radio, the official radio service of the Holy See, called it "honest" and "compelling" and said it helped the U.S. Catholic Church "to accept fully the sin, to admit it publicly, and to pay all the consequences."[59] Luca Pellegrini on the Vatican Radio website wrote that the Globe reporters "made themselves examples of their most pure vocation, that of finding the facts, verifying sources, and making themselves—for the good of the community and of a city—paladins of the need for justice."[59][60] In February 2016, a Vatican City commission on clerical sex abuse attended a private screening of the film.[61] Following the film's Best Picture win at the Oscars, Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano ran a column assuring that it is "not an anti-Catholic film", and Vatican Radio revealed that clerics in Rome have been recommending the film to each other.[62][63][64]
Criticism
A January 7, 2016, article in The New York Times cited author David F. Pierre Jr., who said that Spotlight "is a misrepresentation of how the Church dealt with sexual abuse cases", asserting that the movie's biggest flaw was its failure to portray psychologists who had assured Church officials that abusive priests could be safely returned to ministry after undergoing therapy treatments. Open Road Films rebutted the detractor, saying he was "perpetuating a myth in order to distract from real stories of abuse."[65]
The film was attacked by Jack Dunn (played by Gary Galone), the public relations head and a member of the board at Boston College High School, for portraying him as callous and indifferent to the scandal. Dunn says he was immediately aware of the issues involved and worked to respond after viewing the film.[66] Two of the Globe reporters depicted in the film, Walter Robinson and Sacha Pfeiffer, issued a statement in response to Dunn, firmly standing by their recollections of the day, that Dunn did "his best to frame a story in the most favorable way possible for the institution he is representing. That's what Jack did that day." They said Dunn mounted a "spirited public relations defense of Boston College High School during our first sit-down interview at the school in early 2002," the scene in which Dunn is depicted.[67]
On March 15, 2016, Open Road Films released a statement on how Dunn was portrayed in the film: "As is the case with most movies based on historical events, Spotlight contains fictionalized dialogue that was attributed to Mr. Dunn for dramatic effect. We acknowledge that Mr. Dunn was not part of the Archdiocesan cover-up. It is clear from his efforts on behalf of the victims at BC High that he and the filmmakers share a deep, mutual concern for victims of abuse."[68] Dunn then also released a statement: "I feel vindicated by the public statement and relieved to have the record set straight on an issue that has caused me and my family tremendous pain. While it will never erase the horrific experience of being falsely portrayed in an Academy Award-winning film, this public statement enables me to move forward with my reputation and integrity intact."[68]
