Ansel Elgort defends The Goldfinch following box office flop

Ansel Elgort has defended his new movie The Goldfinch following its flop at the box office.

The Baby Driver actor stars as Theo, a young man who turns to art forgery after losing his mother in a freak tragedy, in the adaptation of Donna Tartt's bestselling novel. The Goldfinch had been a highly anticipated cinema release until it was savaged by critics, and it subsequently failed at the U.S. box office on its opening weekend earlier this month, making only $2.6 million (£2.1 million) instead of a projected $12 million (£9.6 million).

Accordingly, Elgort has addressed the film's performance in an Instagram Stories video, and insisted members of the general public have been much more favourable than the critics.

"Critics are usually really great writers and they have to kind of choose a side and they decided that pointing out everything that was wrong with the film would be the best way to write their reviews," the 25-year-old told viewers. "They're all great articles too, all the bad reviews, really well-written, but there is a lot of good in the film too, and the film does work, and people who see it, enjoy it and are moved by it.

"The most important person it moved, for me, was my mother, and she's not moved by all my films, but she really liked this one, so that made me really like it too. So, it's still in theatres this weekend, take your mom."

He proved his point by sharing a screengrab from review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, which showed the critics' score at 25 per cent and the general public's score at 73 per cent.

The Goldfinch, which cost $40 million (£32 million) to make, was directed by John Crowley and also stars Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson, and Finn Wolfhard.