Don’t Worry Darling rakes in impressive box office numbers for its pre-release day screenings. The film is directed by Olivia Wilde and stars Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, and Wilde herself. Pugh and Styles play Alice and Jack Chambers, a young couple who are newcomers to the “Victory Project,” a 1950s utopian community in the desert. As Alice begins to question how idyllic their new home really is, tensions arise and secrets are uncovered.
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On the Internet over the past few weeks, it’s been seemingly impossible to avoid coverage and speculations about the many controversies surrounding Don't Worry Darling. Pugh didn’t attend many of the film’s promotional events, due to an alleged feud between Pugh and Wilde. The feud ostensibly has to do with disagreements between the director and star on set and about the film’s marketing strategy. Adding to the drama, a clip of Styles giving less than eloquent press statements and appearing to spit in Pine’s lap at the film's premiere went viral. In light of all the bad press, many have wondered whether people would show up to the movie in spite of the negative coverage, or if they would decide to see it anyway.
Now that Don’t Worry Darling has been released, it’s had a successful turnout for its preview screenings. Deadline reports that the movie made $3.1 million at the box office. The $3.1 million combines the numbers from Monday's IMAX screenings as well as Thursday evening's pre-opening day screenings. Warner Bros.' official projection for Don’t Worry Darling’s opening week was $17 million, but these preview numbers suggest that the opening week numbers may be much higher than initially expected.
Why Negative Press May Have Helped Don’t Worry Darling’s Box Office
For context, $3.1 million is quite high for preview box office numbers (especially for a movie like Don't Worry Darling, a mid-budget, original title). It's a higher preview turnout than other recent original movies like House of Gucci and Get Out. While many wondered whether all the PR chaos surrounding Don't Worry Darling would hurt its performance at the box office, as of now, it doesn’t seem to be hurting the movie, and may in fact be helping. Since the movie itself has such a mysterious premise, and the controversies about the movie have been mysterious as well, there’s a good chance some people are showing up to see the movie out of sheer curiosity. Once the movie’s been out in theaters for a while longer, box office analysts will be able to tell whether the fan enthusiasm for Don’t Worry Darling will stay consistent or whether it will fizzle out.
That being said, it’s possible all the controversy is hurting Don't Worry Darling in other ways. Early reviews of the film were quite critical – it’s been officially deemed “rotten” by RottenTomatoes with a 37% score. Critics have mainly taken issue with the film’s script and Styles’ performance but have praised Pugh’s haunting performance and Wilde’s direction. While critics are supposed to evaluate a film’s quality outside any behind-the-scenes drama, it is possible that the reviews would have been more positive without all the scandals.