In a classic example of salacious publicity working to boost a film’s box office, ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ succeeds.
Directed by Olivia Wilde, the psychological mystery thriller stars Florence Pugh, Harry Styles and Chris Pine. The scandalous publicity, real or not, surrounding the release of the picture helped overshadow the low scores review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes had posted. Not surprising, as Rotten Tomatoes is notorious for audiences expressing misogynistic, racist views toward movies.
The scandals surrounding ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ included Olivia Wilde being served court papers regarding her divorce from comedic actor Jason Sudeikis and the subsequent child custody battle while on stage presenting her film at CinemaCon.
There was also the he-said/she-said between Wilde and actor Shia LeBeouf over whether he quit or was fired from the film after originally being cast. This led to speculation of Wilde and Florence Pugh having a screaming argument while on set and whether or not Pugh would promote the film. All eyes were on the two at the Venice Film Festival where the two very noticeably kept their distance.
Adding to the scandals were the public romance between Wilde and popstar Harry Styles, who replaced LeBeouf as the male lead in the film. Somehow, video was taken at the Venice Film Festival that many people mis-viewed and thought it showed Styles spitting on costar Chris Pine while seated at the premiere.
So, you can see, the salacious, scandalous publicity proved to be a boon for the film in spite of lackluster reviews.
‘Don’t Worry Darling’ cooked up $19.2 million over the weekend to sit pretty at number one.
Historical action film ‘The Woman King’ abdicated teh box office throne to settle in second place with $11.1 million. Starring Viola Davis and John Boyega, the film will undoubtedly become a major contender this awards season both at the Oscars and with the Golden Globes which are coming back to air on television.
In re-release is James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi flick ‘Avatar’. Dusting off the cobwebs for a third place over the weekend it is a major push by Disney to goose audience anticipation for the long gestating sequel ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ due for release this December (and not starring Bruce Lee).
Audiences are in that autumn-ly Halloween mood as horror films ‘Barbarian’ and ‘Pearl’ round out the Weekend Box Office Top 5. ‘Barbarian’ stars Georgina Campbell as a woman who picks the wrong AirBnB to stay in (though really aren’t they all?) and ‘Pearl’ stars Mia Goth in a prequel of ‘X’ which pleased horror fans earlier this year.
The box office is going to remain quiet for a few weeks. The Dwayne Johnson comic book superhero flick ‘Black Adam’ should provide a healthy boost but, strangely, On Genre seems to be the only one with that opinion. Everyone else is putting all their bets on the very obvious success of November’s Marvel entry ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’.
Of course, ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ will make more money. That doesn’t mean everyone should underestimate Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s box office draw in conjunction with his entry into the superhero genre.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (September 23 – 25, 2022)
- ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ – $19.2 million – mystery (debut)
- ‘The Woman King’ – $11.1 million – historical (drop $7.9 million, 42% down)
- ‘Avatar’ – $10 million – science fiction (re-release from 2009)
- ‘Barbarian’ – $4.8 million – horror (drop $1.5 million, 34% down)
- ‘Pearl’ – $1.9 million – horror (drop $1.2 million, 39% down)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 comes to $47 million. This is a gain of $13 million, for a 38% increase, over last weekend’s total of $34 million.