'Argylle' Shoots to No. 1 at Box Office Despite Weak Opening

Movie

Matthew Vaughn's pricey spy action comedy bombs with an estimated $18 million despite its star-studded cast that includes Bryce Dallas Howard, Henry Cavill and Dua Lipa.

February 5, 2024

AceShowbiz - Not even Matthew Vaughn and a stellar cast can defrost the heart of moviegoers. "Argylle", a spy action comedy from the filmmaker, tanks at the North American box office on yet another sleepy weekend.

The pricey film opened to an estimated $18 million from 3,605 cinemas against its reported $200-250 million budget. It doesn't fare better overseas, where the movie debuted to an estimated $17.3 million from 78 markets, for a global start of $35.3 million.

Despite the slow opening, "Argylle" still wins the weekend domestically, thanks to little competition as there's no other big studio's movie released over the weekend. The weak opening number, however, is a huge disappointment considering the movie's star-studded cast that includes Bryce Dallas Howard, Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose and Samuel L. Jackson among others.

"This is a weak opening for a new action comedy," says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. "For an original [action comedy] to break through, the humor has to jump off the screen. That's not happening here."

Editors' Pick

Coming from Vaughn, who has had experience in the genre with his works on "The Kingsman" series and "X-Men: First Class", "Argylle" wasn't loved by critics. It received only 35% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences gave it a C+ grade on CinemaScore.

The other new nationwide offering at the domestic box office this weekend is the Christian drama series "The Chosen: S4 Episodes 1-3", which lands on the second place. The first three episodes of the fourth season played in 2,263 theaters and grossed an estimated $6 million within its first weekend.

"The Beekeeper" falls from No. 2 to the third place with approximately $5.3 million after being defeated by "Mean Girls (2024)" for the throne last week. "Wonka" also drops one place to No. 4 with an estimated $4.7 million, followed by "Migration" at No. 5 with approximately $4.1 million.

Top 10 of North American Box Office (Feb. 02-04, 2024):