Red One, featuring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, has a production budget of $200–250 million, but box office predictions indicate a lesser opening. The movie is slated to debut in US theaters this weekend and is predicted to open with lower numbers than Black Adam, the last movie in which Johnson played a major role.
Red One predicted to open between $30-35 million at domestic box office
Red One is tracking to make $30 million to $35 million in North America in its opening weekend.
According to the above estimation by The Hollywood Reporter, this is lower than Black Adam. The latter made $67 million at the domestic box office during the opening weekend.
Produced by Amazon MGM Studios, Red One was initially supposed to come out on Prime Video on December 20, 2023. However, the film was delayed, reportedly due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Eventually, the announcement came that it would have a worldwide theatrical release. While Amazon MGM will be handling the distribution duties in the US, Warner Bros. Pictures will step in to do the job internationally.
The aforementioned numbers would be a matter of concern for any legacy studio. But per The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon believes its business model doesn’t completely rely on box-office performances because it’s ultimately a subscription-based service. Moreover, Amazon has a franchise ambition with Red One, as it wants to launch a set of Christmas movies with this tentpole project.
Red One tells the story of Callum Drift (Johnson), the leader of Santa Claus’s ELF (Enforcement Logistics and Fortification) security. He teams up with hacker and bounty hunter Jack O’Malley (Evans) to find a missing Santa Claus. Jake Kasdan has directed the movie from a script by Chris Morgan.
Notably, Red One has accumulated an approval rating of 38% on the review aggregating site Rotten Tomatoes, after 50 reviews. It has also scored 36 out of 100 on Metacritic, which utilizes a weighted average to rate a project, after 13 reviews. This denotes a “generally unfavorable” response.
