Warner Bros./New Line’s “Don’t Worry Darling”The film is already meeting its pre-release projections, with a $19.2million opening at 4,113 locations. It was driven primarily in part by female moviegoers that are interested to see lead stars Florence Pugh (and Harry Styles) and Harry Styles (and a $19.2M opening at 4,113 locations). The international opening of the thriller is $30 million.
The build-up to “Don’t Worry Darling”There have been many tabloid headlines about filming the movie. Most notably, there has been an alleged feud between Pugh’s and Olivia Wilde’s directors. Critics have mostly dissented the film with a 38% Rotten Tomatoes rating.
The film’s opening weekend audience was kinder than expected with 81% of the audience scoring a B- on CinemaScore. Rotten Tomatoes rating, and 72% positive on Comscore/Screen Engine’s Postrak. The audience consisted mainly of white women. Two-thirds were female, 68% Caucasian, and 17% Latino.
A reported budget of $35 Million before marketing was included. “Don’t Worry Darling” should be able to turn a small profit theatrically even if word-of-mouth fails to grow beyond the fans of the film’s stars, who are more likely than others to be more interested in seeing the film in theaters because of the behind-the-scenes drama. Audiences in Styles’ homeland of the United Kingdom could help, as that country contributed $3.1 million this weekend towards the film’s global opening.
Sony/eOne’s “The Woman King”The second place is for $11.2 million, an estimated $22 million weekend total. It has a very strong hold following its positive audience reception and a 41% decline in its $19million opening. A 10-day total of $36million was achieved “The Woman King”Although it hasn’t returned $50 million of its budget, the company is showing signs that it can get there.
Third is the re-release “Avatar” from 20th Century Studios, which made $10 million domestically this weekend and $30.5 million worldwide, bringing the film’s all-time leading lifetime box office gross to $2.87 billion.
Comparatively, the Labor Day Weekend re-release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”Domestically, this movie grossed $5.4 Million. “Avatar” re-release 85% ahead. While it’s not an exact comparison — “Avatar”When it was released 13 years ago “No Way Home” was in theaters just last winter — the result will be encouraging for Disney and 20th Century as they prepare to drum up buzz for “Avatar: The Way of Water,”This re-release included some sneak-peek footage ahead of the December opening.
Holdovers complete the top 5 with 20th Century’s “Barbarian”The film continues to be a low-budget success, earning $4.8 Million in its third weekend of production and grossing $28.4M so far. Searchlight’s “See How They Run” and A24’s “Pearl”They are virtually tied for fifth, with second-weekend totals each of $1.9million. It will come down to Monday’s final totals to decide who comes out on top, with estimated overall totals of $6.1 million for “See How They Run”And $6.6 million “Pearl.”