Movie Monday: It’s only May. Do we already have the biggest movie flop of the year?

One of the most talked about movies of the year opened in theaters over the weekend. Sadly, it wasn’t that the hype came from anticipation of plot or special effects or anything that would bring a smile to movie goers faces…

Rust will always be the movie people talk about for the death, injury, court cases, and chaos on set.

So I wondered how it would do in the movie theaters. Would people want to go see the movie responsible for the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins? The armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is serving an 18-month jail sentence for involuntary manslaughter. The director, Joel Souza, was also injured during the shooting on set. And the man holding the gun when it was fired (or when it just went off by itself, depending on which side of the prosecution or defense you were asking) was Alec Baldwin.

The whole thing is just a sad, unfortunate mess of a tale. A real life tale behind the scenes that puts a dark cloud over this Western movie.

That’s probably why it was only released in a limited amount of theaters. Compared to the weekend’s huge blockbuster Thunderbolts* (which made $78 Million in 4,330 theaters), Rust opened in 115 theaters and made $25,0000. Twenty-five thousand dollars. That’s all.

Naturally, a movie that didn’t have a wide-release would bring in less money overall. But broken down by just how much money Rust made per screen it was shown on, it made just $217 per screen.

$217 per screen is not good. Not good at all.

So will another movie that had so much hype do that bad this year? We’ll have to see but it’s going to be hard to beat as a flop.

In addition to the theatrical release of the movie, Hulu has a documentary film out now that explores the on-set tragedy:

And something that I didn’t know: Any funds from the Rust movie are being paid to the family of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer, who was shot and killed on the set.

Want to contact Laura McKenna about a movie that you recently watched? Email anytime, she’d love to hear from you: Laura.McKenna@civicmedia.us
And tune in weekdays starting at 10am to St. Croix Country & WCFW!