A24 is one of the more trusted bands in cinema these days. It’s that name that can help turn a movie like “Everything Everywhere All at Once” not only into a huge hit, but an unlikely Best Picture winner at the Oscars. The studio has had a lot of luck in the realm of horror in recent years with the likes of the “X” trilogy and “Talk to Me,” among others serving as examples. But even the best studios must suffer a misfire from time to time. It’s just the nature of the business. A24 recently suffered a brutal misfire in the form of “The Front Room,” which has made a little bit of under-the-radar, unfortunate box office history.
Directed by Max Eggers and Sam Eggers, aka The Eggers Brothers, “The Front Room” opened against “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” on September 6. Given that Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” sequel opened to $111 million domestically and is already one of the biggest domestic hits of the year, it was always going to be tough sledding. That said, this could have, in theory, been a decent counterprogramming situation. That’s not how things panned out. The film opened to a dismal $1.58 million on 2,095 screens. That made for a miserable $756 per-screen average. Per Exhibitor Relations Co., that was one of the 20 worst debuts ever for a movie opening on more than 2,000 screens.
Things went from very bad to much, much worse this past weekend as the film fell off a cliff, taking in just $427,756 on 1,622 screens for a miserable $263 per-screen average. It currently has a $2.67 million running total. Theater owners are surely very unhappy with the result and they will be giving those screens to other films ASAP. While the budget has yet to be revealed, the only good news here is that it’s safe to say A24 wouldn’t have over-spent on this one.
In all likelihood, we’re talking about a movie with an over/under $5 million budget, before marketing. That’s of little comfort for a movie that is performing this badly. So, the question must be asked, what the hell happened here?
What went wrong with The Front Room?
“The Front Room” serves as the feature directorial debut for The Eggers Brothers, who are in fact the brothers of Robert Eggers, director of “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse”, which are also A24 joints. The film centers on a newly-pregnant Belinda (Brandy) whose life is thrown into utter chaos after her mother-in-law Solange (Kathryn Hunter) moves in following the death of her husband. The mother-in-law from hell becomes a nuisance who is concerningly obsessed with their newborn child.
Put plainly, A24 seemed to understand that they had a stinker on their hands and they simply dumped it. That’s my read, anyhow. “The Front Room” currently holds a 49% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes to go with a 39% audience rating. That’s not going to exactly translate to good word-of-mouth, and there’s little of that to go around anyhow in light of the ticket sales. /Film’s Jacob Hall called it “the worst movie” he’s seen in 2024, while also admitting that he can’t stop thinking about it. The studio might have been able to lean into the impossible-to-forget moments (which we won’t spoil here) but they opted not to. Those who have seen it probably understand why.
A24 just has to take this one on the chin and try not to let the sink linker. The studio has had a good year, with Alex Garland’s “Civil War” becoming only the second A24 movie to ever make $100 million or more worldwide, joining “Everything Everywhere All at Once” ($143.4 million worldwide). The studio also had “MaXXXine” rounding out the “X” trilogy earlier this summer, as well as “The Zone of Interest” being nominated for five Oscars, winning for both Best International Feature and Best Sound. A24 will be fine, this was just a bad beat.
“The Front Room” is in theaters now.
