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"Mickey 17" box office raises the question: Is Robert Pattinson not a movie star?
"Mickey 17," starring Robert Pattinson (who isn't vibing with horror these days), came out in the United States this weekend. The film is directed by Bong Joon-ho, whose last movie "Parasite" was a hit that won Best Director at the Oscars. Warner Bros. and the assorted production companies ponied up a lot of money for Bong to make his follow-up film, and getting Pattinson in the lead role seemed encouraging. However, based on the box office returns, things aren't looking good for "Mickey 17," and also, perhaps, not for Pattinson.
Expectations for the box office of "Mickey 17" were low, but even so the $19.1 million it brought in domestically was on the low end of those expectations. It was number one, but the competition was a "Captain America" movie that has been out for weeks (and that a lot of people don't really like) and "Last Breath," a movie we're pretending was actually in competition for the box-office crown to make things more interesting. While the movie has picked up some money overseas already, including in Bong's native South Korea, with a budget of $118 million, plus marketing expenses, "Mickey 17" is not likely to break even.
Bong will be fine, because he's never been a blockbuster filmmaker and he can just make smaller South Korean movies and be beloved. What about Pattinson, though? He's been in some huge movies, and has more MTV Movie Awards than Wayne Gretzky and the Pope combined (to quote one of the worst "Simpsons" episode in history), but is he a movie star? Or is he a famous guy who has been in movies that sell themselves?
What are the successful (commercially speaking) Pattinson movies? There are the "Twilight" films which were entirely popular built upon the love for the books. They are bad movies, fundamentally poorly-crafted and based upon barely-competent books, but they were unequivocally huge. Beyond that franchise, Pattinson's other box-office success came when he stepped into the role of Batman.
To points of the "to be fair" variety: One, "Tenet," which he co-starred in, was obliterated by the pandemic. Two, after "Twilight" Pattinson clearly was looking to make some uncommercial films with directors he thought were cool. The Safdie brothers and David Cronenberg aren't looking to make blockbusters. While Robert Eggers has become more successful commercially, there was a zero percent chance "The Lighthouse" was going to click with larger audiences.
However, being in "Tenet," playing Batman, and then signing up for Bong's $118-million sci-fi film are not decisions that run counter to movie stardom. Were he a true, butts-in-seats movie star, "Mickey 17" would have done better. Hollywood has been scrambling to find new movie stars under 40, or even 50, and this may have been Pattinson's last chance to carry a big-budget movie.
Pattinson has a role in the massive ensemble of "The Odyssey," the next film from Christopher Nolan, and a couple smaller movies coming up. The next time we see him starring in a sizable studio film, we're guessing he'll be wearing a cape and cowl.
(h/t Variety)
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