Some more bad news for Ari Aster’s “Beau is Afraid.” It stands to lose a lot of dough. I wanted this risk-taking film to, at least, make its money back, but it won’t. Not even close.
‘Beau’ is set to make a minuscule $1.5 million at the box-office this weekend. When all is said and done, it’ll turn out to be the biggest bomb in A24 history, and it’s not even close.
Remember when Aster said that he couldn’t believe how “stupid” A24 were in greenlighting his $35 million passion project? He wasn’t kidding. It will probably finish its run, if it’s lucky enough, with an $8 million worldwide total.
Before it was even released there were estimates hinting that, to “break even,” the film would need to make around $60 million. The only positive for A24 in this is that a film like ‘Beau’ only reinforces their brand and that it’ll probably be an intriguing addition to their library. That’s about it.
So, what happened?
Mixed reviews, an unenthusiastic moviegoing audience and that 3-hour runtime surely didn’t help. The big miracle here is that Aster got his existential and plotless 180-minute mommy issues movie made, and good for him.
This weekend, A24 cut their theater count for ‘Beau’ and the number of showings per screen. A friend went to see it last night in a Theater that was 95% empty — this, on a Saturday night.
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.