Trivia / The Promise (2016)

• Awesome, Dear Boy: While Charlotte Le Bon signed on because she felt the message needed to be out there, she also couldn't resist acting alongside her favorite actor, Christian Bale.
• Box Office Bomb: It only made a little over $8 million during its domestic theatrical run, plus another $4.4 million from international run. While the sabotage campaign by Turkish trolls likely didn't help matters, the real cause is probably that it only interested a niche market of Armenians, other descendants of Christian minorities from the Ottoman Empire, and history buffs. However, the multi-billion dollar Kerkorian estate which funded the film for $90 million likely wasn't hurt much by this, and the profits were going to go to charities anyway.
• Cast the Expert: The historical Father Komitas was a singer that is portrayed by an actual Armenian priest who also sings.
• Doing It for the Art: Even after the film was a Box Office Bomb, even losing its distributor Open Road over $100 million, its studio noted the main purpose of the film was to bring attention to the story, not make money, with director Terry George saying that "audiences learn more from films today than they do from history books."
• Dueling Works: The film The Ottoman Lieutenant is largely seen as Turkey's answer to this film, released a month ahead of The Promise, filmed by a company funded by the son of Turkey's President Erdogan, and of course, absolving the Ottoman government of blame in the Armenian genocide, instead portraying the denial narrative where the government didn't directly order any killings and the Armenians provoked any violence that befell them. Unlike most examples of dueling works, this case had a lot of politics involved and was quite deliberate. However, although neither film was profitable The Promise outdid The Ottoman Lieutenant's abysmal $200,000 box office take by far, and got way more celebrity endorsements and media coverage.
• Fake Nationality: Of the main cast who play Armenians, only Angela Sarafyan actually is (she's a US citizen, as her parents moved there when she was four). However, most of the Turks really are played by actors at least ethnically Turkish.

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