Danny Boyle has addressed the underwhelming box office performance of his Oscar-tipped tech biopic Steve Jobs in a BBC interview.

The Oscar-winning director’s latest film has made only $16.9m (£11.m) to date in the US after three weeks of wide release, and he believes it’s down to a poor release strategy. “It’s very disappointing that when it was released wide across America it didn’t really work. So it’s retreated back now to the main cities,” Boyle told BBC Arabic. “It’s very easy in hindsight [to speculate], but I think it’s probably that we released it too wide too soon.”

The drama, which stars Michael Fassbender as the Apple entrepreneur, was initially released in just four cinemas in the US and received a strong screen average. Two weeks later, it was pushed out to 2,493 screens, where it struggled to find an audience. Two weeks after the expansion, its release was stripped back to a mere 421 screens.

While Boyle said that the film’s distributor Universal “should have built [the release] more slowly”, he applauded it for taking on the troubled project after it was dropped by Sony. “Universal have been exemplary in the way they’ve stood up for the film, promoted it and supported us throughout the whole process – and I think are genuinely very proud of the film. Sure, you might have done it in a different way … But you’ve got to get on now,” he said, adding that he hopes people will continue to discover the film.

It’s one of many films to have suffered from a disastrous month at the US box office, with Bradley Cooper’s foodie drama Burnt, Sandra Bullock’s political satire Our Brand Is Crisis and Bill Murray’s comedy Rock the Kasbah all failing to ignite.

Nevertheless, the biopic has received mostly strong reviews, with many suggesting it remains a contender for next year’s Oscars.