Just when we claimed that Bong Joon-Ho is one of the few major filmmakers in the world who has not made a bad movie, here comes his latest, Mickey 17, a sci-fic fantasy thriller, starring Robert Pattinson.
While not a bad movie, Mickey 17 is Bong’s weakest work to
date, especially coming right after the brilliant Parasite, which won the Best Picture as well as the Best International Feature Oscars in 2020.
Greeted with mixed reviews, it is the Korean directors’ highest budget movie ($118 for production alone, excluding promotion and marketing).
Mickey 17 looks to open to $18 million to $20 million domestically, on the lower end of expectations.
All eyes are on the Warner Bros. and Plan B movie, since it has faced multiple delays and is Bong‘s follow-up to Parasite.
Neither reviewers nor audiences are enthusiastic about the film, which claims only 78 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Worse yet, in terms of audience scores, Mickey 17 was slapped with B CinemaScore (also our grade).
Overseas, it’s already grossed a promising $18.7 million, including $11.4 million in Bong’s native South Korea, for an early global haul of $26.4 million through Friday.
In the dark comedy that’s set in a nascent ice colony, Pattinson plays a repeatedly reconstituted “expendable” who is killed again and again.
Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Colette and Mark Ruffalo also star. Edward Ashton originated this world in his 2022 novel Mickey 7, which centers on the seventh iteration of Mickey Barnes.
There’s a three-way race brewing between deep-sea thriller Last Breath, family film Paddington in Peru and The Monkey, all of which should gross around $4 million.
The Monkey is from indie distribution outfit Neon, home of this year’s Oscar-winning Anora. Tom Quinn’s Neon was also home of Parasite, which was both a critical and commercial success.
In the wake of Anora’s winning five major Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress, the film expanded into 1,750 theaters this weekend. Seeing a big bump, Anora looks to a hefty $1.8 million for a domestic tally of $18.3 million.
