role of Ben, he was on the set of the film City by the Sea with actor Robert De Niro. De Niro saw Mount with the Crossroads script and encouraged Mount to take the role, running a few of Spears' lines with him. Reception Box office Crossroads was released in the United States on February 15, 2002. On its opening day, Crossroads grossed an estimated $5.2 million in 2,380 theaters, becoming the second highest-grossing film of the day. On the first weekend of its release, Crossroads placed second, grossing an estimate of $14,527,187. By the second week, the film dropped a 52% on tickets sales, ranking at number 5 on the Box Office. Crossroads was a moderate financial success, grossing a total $37,191,304 in the United States. Worldwide, the film grossed a total of $61,141,030 until its close day, on May 9, 2002. Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 15% approval rating based on 103 reviews, with an average rating of 4.10/10, with the consensus: "A cliched and silly pop star vanity project, Crossroads is strictly for Britney fans only." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score, gave the film a 27 out of 100 based on 31 reviews from critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B" on scale of A to F. John Anderson of Los Angeles Times commented "Spears acquits herself as well as anyone might, in a movie as contrived and lazy as this one". Chris Kaltenbach of The Baltimore Sun said, "go see Crossroads if you want to hear Britney sing or see her wear next-to-nothing. But otherwise, avoid this train wreck at all costs". Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a positive review, commenting Crossroads "not only makes excellent use of the singer's sweetly coltish acting abilities, but it also promotes a standardized set of sturdy values with none of Mariah Carey's desperate Glitter, or any of Mandy Moore's gummy pap in A Walk to Remember". Jane Crowther of BBC rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, applauded Cattrall and Aykroyd's interactions with the characters, and said that "Spears manages to come across on film as natural, endearing, and extremely likable". Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune said "Spears delivers a performance with the same sincerity she invests into a Pepsi commercial, only this film contains twice the sugary calories",