Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Chris Evans teamed up for a new Christmas action movie called Red One, which just hit theaters this weekend to some pretty lackluster reviews. On Friday, the outlook for Red One‘s performance at the box office felt less-than-ideal, with the holiday adventure expected to make just $30 million here in North America. Over the last couple of days, Red One was able to pull ahead and beat those projections, even if only slightly.
By the end of the weekend, Red One managed to earn just over $34 million domestically. It’s not a big jump from what was expected as the weekend got started, but it is an indicator that perhaps there was a little excitement building for the film after its release.
Between its domestic and international hauls, Red One has now earned over $84 million across the globe. That’s well below what a film of its size would like to take in, considering it reportedly cost $250 million to produce. The only reason for not seeing Red One as a pretty substantial bust is the fact that it was made with both theaters and streaming in mind.
Amazon intends for Red One to be a big hit on Prime Video, so its theatrical rollout isn’t the only revenue streaming the company has in mind. Had it gone straight to Prime, like the recent Road House remake, it wouldn’t have made any of that theatrical money. There’s still the issue of the massive budget, which has become a big problem for all of the major studios, but Red One was never intended to be a smash hit in theaters.
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Unfortunately, Red One also represents the issue facing holiday films in recent years. While holiday and Christmas movies used to be more common success stories at the box office, a lot of the mid-budget holiday fare has gone directly to streaming. The only other major holiday release this year is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, from Lionsgate, which is a very modestly budgeted and has already made $20 million at the box office. It isn’t reaching the heights of Home Alone or The Santa Clause, but it’s already earned itself a ton of fans and won’t be losing money.
Red One follows the more recent trend of trying to create a franchise with perceived mega-stars at the center, hoping that a bigger action movie will result in a bigger box office haul. While the film is beating some projections, it doesn’t appear to be making enough of a splash to prove its massive scale was the right move.
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