You just know the arthouse box-office is in dire shape when Variety actually has a headline that reads “‘The Whale’ Passes $10 Million at Domestic Box Office.” This isn’t generally supposed to be news, but pre-pandemic it definitely is.
Don’t get me wrong, $10 million is a good number for a small indie with a $3 million budget like “The Whale,” but it’s not supposed to be an earth-shattering figure either. Fact of the matter is that in 2023, a domestic gross like this matters.
Variety calls it “a notable milestone for an indie movie in the pandemic era”. How depressing to even ponder the state that we’re in right now. “The Whale” is definitely successful when compared to other Oscar contenders such as “TÁR” ($5.7 million), “She Said” ($5.8 million), “The Banshees of Inisherin” ($9.1 million) “Triangle of Sadness” ($4.1 million) and Women Talking” ($393,985).
Only Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” ($13 million) surpasses “The Whale,” but Spielberg’s movie was produced on a budget of $40 million.
So, what’s made Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” such a “hit”? Word of mouth. People are very curious about Brendan Fraser’s fat suit and they also genuinely like the movie and are telling their friends to go see it. The reviews have been mixed from critics, but audiences seem to love “The Whale” with its 8.1 IMDB score and 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.