Not alright, alright, alright at all. No one needs to cry for Matthew McConaughey, but The Beach Bum just marked his lowest opening for a film opening on over 1,000 screens. The Oscar winner leads Harmony Korine's all-star cast -- which also includes Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg, Zac Efron, Jonah Hill, Martin Lawrence, and even Jimmy Buffett as himself.
The Beach Bum opened this final March weekend in 10th place with $1,800,000 million from 1,100 screens. That's the worst yet for Matthew McConaughey, and it actually made Serenity look like a hit by comparison. Serenity at least had a $4.5 million debut (albeit from twice as many screens).
The Beach Bum's $1.8 million is also lower than the $4.8 million debut of Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers in 2013.
According to Variety, The Beach Bum was initially planned for a platform release, which could've allowed the stoner comedy to gain steam through word-of-mouth. Instead, The Beach Bum opened nationwide with little marketing since its premiere at South by Southwest.
It kind of reminds me of Keanu Reeves' Replicas, which recently faced a somewhat similar situation. That film opened to $2.4 million, marking Reeves' lowest opening for a film opening on over 1,000 screens. That one actually opened in 2,329 theaters and appears to have tapped out at just over $4 million.
The Beach Bum did get some publicity for Zac Efron's crazy hair (with facial hair inspired by a panini), Snoop Dogg's weed trick, and the film's wacky red band trailer. But apparently that wasn't enough to draw much interest.
The Beach Bum follows "the hilarious misadventures" of Moondog (Matthew McConaughey), described as "a rebellious rogue who always lives life by his own rules." The logline described the comedy as "refreshingly original and subversive."
The Beach Bum hasn't gotten great reviews from critics, but it still managed to post a middle-of-the-road 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans -- or at least the few people who saw it -- gave it a 36% Audience Score and a 6.3 user rating on IMDb.
If you're keeping score, or just curious, Matthew McConaughey's top movies at the domestic box office are the animated movie Sing ($270M), Interstellar ($188M), The Wolf of Wall Street ($117M), Magic Mike ($113M), Tropic Thunder ($110M) and A Time to Kill ($108M). Those are all just North American box office numbers (per Box Office Mojo), not counting foreign grosses, and the numbers aren't adjusted for inflation.
Worldwide, the win would go to Interstellar with a combined total of $677.5 million.
Overall, the box office appears to be in the doldrums as we wait for Shazam! and Pet Sematary to open next weekend, with Avengers: Endgame ready to save the world at the end of April. Keep up with everything ahead with our 2019 movie release date schedule.
