The string of successes as Warner Bros. comes to a crashing end with The Bride!
Maggie Gyllenhaalâs The Bride! is off to a brutal start at the box office, opening to just $7.26 million domestic and only $13.56 million worldwide.
For a movie carrying a reported $80 million to $90 million budget, thatâs a disaster right out of the gate, and it already looks like a major flop for Warner Bros.
The box office is a disaster
The Bride! was supposed to be a bold new take on Bride of Frankenstein, but audiences didnât show up.
Reports peg the production budget at $90 million, and that doesnât include marketing.
Variety reported Warner Bros. also spent a reported $65 million on promotion, which makes the opening even worse.
A traditional break-even point for a movie like this would likely be well north of $200 million worldwide, so The Bride! is already facing an uphill climb that looks nearly impossible.
Reviews are mixed and the audience score isnât saving it
The reviews arenât helping much.
The Bride! currently sits at 59% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 73% with verified audience ratings. That tells you everything you need to know. Some viewers and critics are into the movieâs weird, chaotic style, but plenty of others clearly are not.
Rotten Tomatoesâ consensus says the film goes in so many different creative directions that the result comes off both sloppy and inspired, which lines up with a lot of the reactions online. Some are calling it bold and original. Others think itâs a total mess.
IMDb users also have it sitting at a weak 6.0 out of 10, which is another sign that word of mouth isnât exactly strong.
That C+ CinemaScore is a red flag
If thereâs one number that really jumps out, itâs the CinemaScore.
The Bride! landed a C+, which is bad news for any big studio release trying to build momentum after opening weekend. CinemaScore polls opening-night audiences, so when the grade comes in that low, it usually means general moviegoers werenât impressed.
That low grade also helps explain why the movie is already getting labeled a box office bomb. Even movies with mixed critic scores can survive if audiences like them. That doesnât seem to be the case here.
What is The Bride! about?
The Bride! is Maggie Gyllenhaalâs feminist reimagining of the Bride of Frankenstein story. Set in 1930s Chicago, the movie stars Jessie Buckley as the Bride and Christian Bale as Frankensteinâs monster, with the story mixing horror, romance, crime, music, and social commentary.
A big miss for Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. has had a decent run lately, which makes The Bride! stand out even more as a miss. Instead of breaking out, it got crushed on opening weekend and is already being talked about as one of the year.
