‘Parasite’ director Bong Joon Ho’s new film, ‘Mickey 17,’ off to a slow box office start

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The science fiction thriller “Mickey 17” by director Bong Joon Ho experienced a gradual beginning at cinemas over the weekend, occurring during a period of weak ticket sales for U.S. movie theaters.

In the U.S. and Canada, “Mickey 17” had its debut, earning $19.1 million and securing the top spot. However, box office analysts predicted that it would make around $21 million during its domestic opening weekend. The film has previously been released internationally and has garnered a global gross of $53.3 million thus far.

As a cinephile, let me tell you about my recent viewing experience: In this movie, Robert Pattinson plays a space crew member, often branded as expendable, who finds himself perishing repeatedly during high-risk missions. The film, with its intriguing premise, boasts an impressive 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It serves as director Bong Joon Ho’s first project since his Academy Award-winning masterpiece “Parasite” in 2019.

The initial performance of “Mickey 17,” an original science fiction film, may be due to its challenging nature to market, according to Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore. Notably, unlike films such as “Dune” and the “Alien” series, which are based on well-known intellectual properties, “Mickey 17” is derived from a 2022 science fiction novel by Edward Ashton titled “Mickey7.

“Mickey 17” also faces the additional pressure of its hefty reported budget of $118 million.

However, though the film’s opening weekend was less than anticipated, Dergarabedian suggested it might gather momentum in the forthcoming weeks.

He mentioned that it’s the first weekend, implying there are more weekends to come. There’s no other event or competitor directly challenging it at this point.

This past weekend, I found myself among the countless fans who flocked to theaters to catch Disney and Marvel Studios’ “Captain America: Brave New World” in its fourth week of release. With a domestic total of approximately $8.5 million this weekend, it held strong at the box office, bringing its U.S. and Canadian gross to an impressive $176.6 million so far. Globally, the film has raked in an astounding $370.8 million. Joining Captain America in the top five were “Last Breath” by Focus Features with $4.2 million, followed closely by Neon’s “The Monkey” at $3.9 million and the delightful “Paddington in Peru,” distributed by Sony, earning $3.85 million. What an exciting time to be a moviegoer!

Over the past few weeks, the box office has experienced a significant drop compared to the figures from last year. To be precise, this past weekend saw a decrease of approximately 60%, as stated by Dergarabedian.

A significant factor for this is the success of films released during the same timeframe last year, such as “Dune: Part Two” and “Kung Fu Panda 4.” The former raked in $82.5 million on its debut weekend, while the latter opened to nearly $58 million. Interestingly, the box office earnings from last week’s Oscar weekend dropped by about 50% compared to the same period a year prior.

However, as films such as Disney’s “Snow White” and Paramount Pictures’ “Novocaine” are set to hit theaters shortly, the box office might experience an uptick, according to Dergarabedian.

“There are big blockbusters on the way,” he said. “We have to be patient until they get here.”

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2025-03-09 22:01