The new Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell movie, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, bombed in its opening weekend box office as it ended up placing sixth on the domestic chart.
Considering the involvement of two A-list stars and acclaimed director Kogonada, the new surrealistic romantic fantasy film was being seen as a potential awards contender and critics' favorite. However, the results failed to meet any expectations as it only grossed $3.5 million in its domestic opening weekend, and the reception was lukewarm.
Why A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Flopped at the Box Office
Movie fans have been wondering why A Big Bold Beautiful Journey flopped at the box office, despite the star power involved and the theatrical fantasy nature of the film.
After all, this marks Robbie's first movie since the release of Barbie, which was a massive success when it was released in 2023, and she was credited as one of the main reasons why it became a huge smash.
As for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, the first potential reason for its underwhelming opening weekend is that the film is entirely original material with no IP attached, and the trailers showed that it has surrealistic elements, which are not easy to sell to the general audience, even with the A-list stars attached. There is also a perception that this is a niche for certain audiences (particularly the cinephile community), and it is not necessarily a broad-appealing movie.
It also does not help that the film has received lukewarm reviews from critics. As of this writing, the film has a 37% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a CinemaScore of B-, meaning that the audience who watched it on opening night did not generally love it.
If the film had better reviews and been positioned as a serious awards contender, it might have performed better at the box office since it would have gotten positive word-of-mouth, and audiences would think that it is worth their money to watch it on the big screen.
It remains to be seen what the film's shelf life will be in the coming weeks, but it did not help that it has a production budget of $45 million, and the signs indicate that it won't be able to recoup it.
What is A Big Bold Beautiful Journey About?
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey focuses on Sarah (Robbie) and David (Farrell), single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on "a big bold beautiful journey."
The two characters go through a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present, and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures.
Aside from Robbie and Farrell, the cast also includes Kevin Kline, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith, Billy Magnussen, Sarah Gadon, Brandon Perea, Chloe East, and Hamish Linklater.
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