The long-anticipated Al Pacino & Robert De Niro bromance crime thriller, Righteous Kill, hits theaters today. Oh, and the film also features Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, but you’d never know it by looking at the film’s posters. This was not always the case:

When the producers of the movie Righteous Kill, which stars Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino and 50 Cent, were trying to sell the film to major studios, they relied heavily on 50 Cent’s urban appeal to make the film more attractive to buyers. This included initial movie posters that featured DeNiro, Pacino and 50 Cent together, press leaks that portrayed 50 Cent as “one of the guys” with DeNiro and Pacino and a sales reel that showed 50 Cent as a club owner who assists in solving the murder case (which was quickly erased from the internet). This was an attempt by the producers to use 50 Cent to “young-up” the potential audience and reach the much coveted “urban” demographic.

Yet, as the release of Righteous Kill became imminent, the posters and trailers used to promote the theatrical release have pretty much pretended 50 Cent never existed. Naturally, one would assume the film’s hype might truly be all about Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, but, if 50 was such a strong selling point to studios, what the hell? It seems the rapper has lost his urban mainstream appeal:

WoooHa, Inc. sources reveal that the real reason the studio cut Curtis out of the campaign is because their research and exit poll information showed that 50 actually was not the urban or young demographic box office draw they were hoping for. 50 basically can’t draw in the core demographic that used to buy his albums by the millions.

Oh, bullocks. Something has zapped all the street cred from this carefully nurtured deadbeat dad & alleged arsonist rep, and 50 Cent may point his (suing) finger towards Taco Bell. Certainly, all of those bona fide upscale grape-flavoured vitamin water, deodorant spray, and video game endorsements did no damage whatsoever, eh mates?