Did anyone else see this coming? A videogame racer featuring no characters – just cars – molded into a movie turns out to be rubbish. That headline’s too long though, so we had to explain it in this first bit. What’s more, Need for Speed didn’t even manage to beat out Mr. Peabody and Sherman or 300: Rise of An Empire at the box office, both of which have already been for a week.

Need for Speed Promo ImageIt's been a bad domestic start for NFS - hopefully it can rake it in internationally

This news will come as a major blow to Buena Vista, who will have undoubtedly hoped the star draw of Aaron Paul – who was on everyone’s lips at the end of last year for his brilliant role as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad – would be enough to garner sufficient hype and make Need For Speed a financial juggernaut if nothing else.

A critical mauling, though, combined with a poor fiscal showing at this weekend’s box office means its back to the drawing board. It also means the movie version of the video game that got numerous sequels will likely receive none.

In terms of figures, the high-octane action film managed to grab $17.8m according to Box Office Mojo, which landed it a third spot in this week’s standings. Mr. Peabody & Sherman topped the list with $21.2m, bringing its total to a touch over $63m, while 300: Rise of An Empire made it $78.4m overall with a further $19.2m in the kitty to help chip away that $110m production budget.

Watch the trailer for Need For Speed here

When looking at the reviews, we were faced with a veritable gold mine of negative words for Need For Speed. This one, perhaps, was our favorite: “Young men and fast cars are automatically stupid together, but even if you set your intelligence level at “off” — and you should — you’ll get a hangover from this cocktail of 200-proof stupid, clinking with moron ice cubes and with an idiot cherry on top.” (Kyle Smith – The New York Post).

More: Read our review of 'Need for Speed'

More: Aaron Paul's 'Need For Speed' Matches His Need For Change