Red One, featuring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans in the lead, has made an underwhelming start at the box office. Compared to its reported budget of $250 million, Red One debuted with a weak opening weekend. The movie follows the story of a Christmas rescue mission. It focuses on Johnson and Evans’ characters teaming up to solve the case of Santa Claus’ disappearance, where the latter is played by J.K. Simmons.
Red One wins domestic box office opening despite a sluggish start
Dwayne Johnson’s Christmas movie hit theaters on November 15, 2024, however, it has failed to leave a big impact at the box office.
Keeping up with its original tracking, it has collected a total of $34 million domestically in its opening weekend, playing in 4,032 theaters across North America. Meanwhile, its global collection stands at $84 million. However, with a reported production budget of $250 million, and more spent on marketing, the film’s opening weekend earnings could be disappointing for the studio.
But, it has still managed to open with a win surpassing other movies that it was competing with this week. Johnson’s latest flick topped Tom Hardy’s Venom: The Last Dance, which had been reigning for its first three weeks. In its Week 4, Venom 3 earned close to $7.3 million domestically, while The Best Christmas Pageant Ever made $5.4 million over the weekend.
Apart from the collection concerns, Red One seems to also not have faired well with the critics. The movie stands at a Rotten score of 33% on the Tomatometer, however, it has garnered an impressive audience score of 90% on the Popcornmeter, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
The movie will soon face immense competition from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 and the Ariana Grande-led Wicked: Part One. Both of them will hit theaters on November 22, 2024, and are predicted to open much bigger than Red One.
