Slow year for Fassbender… but he’s still a hit at home

HE was a hit when he returned home to Kerry for the Christmas holidays… but Michael Fassbender’s cinematic efforts have flopped at the box office, figures for 2015 show.

The Hollywood heavy hitter, right, posed for selfies with delighted locals when he caught up with old friends in Killarney over Christmas.

The Oscar nominee grew up just outside the Co. Kerry town and returns regularly to Fossa, where his parents Adele and Josef still live.

Professionally, 2015 was a so-so year for the acclaimed actor, 38.

The three productions he starred in fared only moderately well at the box office.

Fassbender played the leads in Slow West, a 19th-century tale of frontier life; Steve Jobs, about the life of the Apple founder who died in 2011, and Macbeth, the latest adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy.

Slow West won a major award at Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival in January but received only a limited release in US cinemas in May. The film took just €211,000 on its release there.

His next release, Steve Jobs, was directed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle. But after opening in select cinemas in October in North America to terrific reviews it failed to find an audience. To date worldwide the film has taken $25m but its production budget is estimated at $30m.

His other movie project to go on release last year was Macbeth, in which he played the lead. It boasted a strong cast, including Oscar winner Marion Cotillard and Dubliner Jack Reynor but has taken just $9.2m.

This year looks to be more promising for Fassbender commercially as audiences will again see him play Magneto in the latest instalment of the hit X-Men franchise.

He also has two smaller films lined up, Trespass Against Us, with Brendan Gleeson, and drama The Light Between Oceans with Rachel Weisz.