Box Office Doldrums Continue as ‘Barbarian’ Debuts With $10 Million

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Hold onto your bucket hats: Sony’s action-thriller “Bullet Train” crossed $100 million at the domestic box office. It’s an impressive milestone (in post-COVID times) for an original movie that doesn’t involve marquee comic book heroes or intergalactic adventures. It helps, of course, that a bankable actor like Brad Pitt stars in the film, as a heavily therapized assassin named Ladybug. “Bullet Train” reached $101 million in domestic ticket sales on Friday, making it only the 14th release this year to hit that benchmark. With another $130 million at the international box office, the film has now earned $231 million in global ticket sales to date.

J. Kim Murphy “Smile” has something grin about this weekend. The creeper is projected to land a $19 million debut from 3,645 locations. It’s a fantastic start for the genre film, which carries a modest $17 million production budget. Compared to other original horror entries this year, Universal’s supernatural kidnap thriller “The Black Phone” kicked off with $23 million while 20th Century Studios’ “Barbarian” opened to $10 million. “Smile” landed a mildly positive “B-” grade through research firm Cinema Score, though such a figure is standard for a horror release. The film has drawn good buzz with solid reviews, scoring a 79% from top critics on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Variety‘s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman praised the film in his review, writing that it “sets up nearly everything — its highly effective creep factor, its well-executed if familiar shock tactics, its interlaced theme of trauma and suicide — before the opening credits.”

“Smile” is opening on the upper end of pre-release independent projections with $8.2 million earned on Friday from 3,645 locations and an estimated $19 million opening, which would be the third straight weekend that a No. 1 film has earned that amount.

Smile,” the unsettling Paramount horror about grins, murder and suicide, has earned $2 million from Thursday previews at the domestic box office. On the other side of the cinematic spectrum, Universal’s “Bros,” a romantic comedy with entirely LGBTQ cast, has grossed $500,000. As the two movies face off at the box office this weekend, “Smile” is expected to earn the top spot over “Bros” and defending champ, “Don’t Worry Darling,” which has earned $25.5 million in its first week of release. The horror movie is projected to earn between $16 million and $20 million this weekend. Paramount will be smiling from ear to ear with a box office haul anywhere in that range, seeing as the low-budget fright fest cost a measly $17 million to make.

eerily grinning fans at a baseball game or Eichner running down New York City streets with Paul Rudd and a pack of lesbians. For a comparison for “Smile,” Universal and Blumhouse’s “The Black Phone” from this summer, another original horror film, managed $3 million in its Thursday previews before opening to $23.6 million.

"Don't Worry Darling" did not disappoint at the box office, darling. Olivia Wilde's sophomore release earned $19.2 million domestically, nabbing the top spot across theatrical releases nationwide.

Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream swept up a cool $922,000 at the domestic box office this weekend, while an impressive array of top industry players took Saturday to mull the global future of arthouse film. The real test — of specialty’s core adult audience willingness to return to cinemas — starts this fall, according to execs at the Zurich Summit, an in-person event straddling the Zurich Film Festival.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Despite 13 years passing since “Avatar” first hit theaters, moviegoers are apparently still dazzled by the striking world of Pandora. In anticipation of the sequel “The Way of Water,” which opens in December, Disney re-released James Cameron’s original science-fiction epic to promising returns. The film generated $10 million in North America and $20.5 million internationally over the weekend, a huge result for movie that opened more than a decade ago, even if that movie happens to be the highest-grossing global release in history. With this weekend’s returns, “Avatar” widens its lead as the biggest movie of all time with $2.85 billion worldwide.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter In the end, there was no need to worry, darling. Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling,” a psychological thriller whose off-screen drama rivaled any antics in the actual movie, scored at the box office in its opening weekend, collecting a leading $19.2 million from 4,113 North American theaters. At the international box office, the movie added another $10.8 million for a global tally of $30 million. Those ticket sales indicate that behind-the-scenes scandals didn’t ding interest in the film, which co-stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. All the talk about Spitgate, awkward press conferences and a seemingly endless stream of tabloid fodder may have even boosted awareness. (Well, that, and the overwhelming desire to watch the world-famous pop star in his first major film role.) Whatever the reason that brought audiences to theaters, it’s an impressive debut for the $35 million-budgeted “Don’t Worry Darling.”

The run-up to the release of “Don’t Worry Darling” has been filled with tabloid headlines about the filming of the movie, most notably over an alleged feud between Pugh and director Olivia Wilde. Meanwhile, critics have mostly panned the film with a 38% Rotten Tomatoes score.

J. Kim Murphy It’s been a rambling, rocky odyssey to the release of “Don’t Worry Darling” — one involving canceled late-night appearances, rumors of production rivalries and conspiratorial frame-by-frame analysis of red carpet body language and an alleged loogie trajectory. But there was always going to be an opening weekend at the end of this road. And the numbers show that Olivia Wilde has directed a hit. “Don’t Worry Darling” should have no trouble topping the domestic box office, projecting a $21 million debut from 4,113 theaters. The film earned $9.4 million from opening day and Thursday previews — a more-than-solid figure for an original film that carries a modest $35 million production budget.

The thriller directed by Olivia Wilde and starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles was produced on a budget reported to be at around $35 million, so this opening puts the film on track to earn a modest theatrical profit if it gets some help from overseas theaters. The Venice premiere of “Don’t Worry Darling” was beset with constant rumors about animosity between Wilde and Pugh during the film’s production, and reviews from critics during and after the festival didn’t help matters with a 38% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

projections, the New Line Cinema film will earn $17 million from its opening weekend. Independent projections put that number at $18 million to $20 million. According to reports, its budget falls in the mid-$20 million range.The Florence Pugh and Harry Styles-starring psychological thriller premieres opposite Disney’s re-release of “Avatar” (2009), a few months before its sequel “The Way of Water” hits theaters.

Jordan Moreau After what seems like months of eye-catching headlines and a towering rumor mill of behind-the-scenes drama, Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” has landed in theaters, earning $3.1 million at the domestic box office from previews. The early haul includes Thursday previews from more than 3,300 locations and a Monday live Imax event. The Warner Bros. film is estimated to earn between $17 million to $20 million in its opening weekend, with some projections as high as $25 million. With a price tag of $35 million to produce, a result anywhere in that range would mark a solid start for the film. “Don’t Worry Darling” is Wilde’s second directorial effort, after her 2019 debut “Booksmart,” which was critically adored, but underperformed at the box office. The R-rated comedy had a soft opening of just $8.7 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend. “Don’t Worry Darling,” a twisty psychological thriller with a starry cast including Harry Styles, Florence Pugh and Chris Pine, will surely eclipse that box office mark.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief For the second weekend running, comedy action film “Confidential Assignment 2: International” held top spot at the South Korean box office. And it did so with a massive 75% share of the market. But as the Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) holiday retreated into the rear-view mirror numbers, both for the sequel film and the nationwide box office, came crashing down. “Confidential Assignment 2” earned $6.89 million over the latest Friday to Sunday period, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). That figure was down 57% compared with its opening salvo of $21.0 million a week earlier.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Woman King,” a historical action epic starring Viola Davis, ruled over domestic box office charts in its opening weekend. Bolstered by stellar reviews and positive word-of-mouth, the movie collected $19 million from 3,765 North American cinemas over the weekend, arriving at the higher end of expectations. Independent tracking services projected “The Woman King” would kick off with $15 million to $18 million, while Sony estimated a debut closer to $12 million. Sony is lucky the film exceeded its ultra-conservative forecasts. “The Woman King” cost $50 million to produce, not including the tens of millions in marketing expenses, including a stop at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The next three weekends are favorable for “The Woman King,” with upcoming releases including Warner Bros’ “Don’t Worry Darling,” which has received mixed reviews, Universal’s LGBT comedy “Bros,” and the Sony family film “Lyle Lyle Crocodile.” There won’t be a theatrical release with the sort of action and intensity that “Woman King” offers until “Halloween Ends” on October 14, so it will have plenty of time to build word-of-mouth both as a female-fronted historical film among Black and female audiences and potentially as an exciting action film among crossover demographics. It will need to do so as the film still has to turn a profit against its $50 million production budget, which was co-financed by TriStar and eOne.