Director Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, described by Warner Bros. as an “audacious, twisted and visually stunning psychological thriller,” made $30 million worldwide in its opening weekend. The film debuted at the top spot on the domestic box office charts, with an estimated $19.2 million, and added another $10.8 million from overseas territories.
The film stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles as a young couple — Alice and Jack — living in the idealized community of Victory, "an experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families." Pine plays the company’s cult leader-type CEO. While the husbands work, the wives “spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their community.” But when cracks begin to appear in their seemingly idyllic life, “Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory, and why.”
The film’s $30 million debut, while solid, isn’t spectacular. Especially considering its B- CinemaScore from opening day audiences and mostly negative reviews. Younger audiences were far kinder to the film, although that could be the Styles effect. Collider’s own Brian Formo called it “a surface-level matinée thriller” that “doesn’t sting like it should in the end.” Don’t Worry Darling also stars Wilde, Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll and Kate Berlant.
The $35 million original film, which felt somewhat reminiscent of Stepford Wives, premiered at the recent Venice Film Festival amid significant controversy surrounding a supposed falling out between Wilde and her star, Pugh. While Wilde has had nothing but kind things to say about Pugh publicly, the actor has remained mysteriously absent from the film’s publicity tour, and has been extremely picky about promoting it on social media. Several theories about the rumored behind-the-scenes drama have been floated online, but there has been little official clarity on what actually happened. For what it’s worth, cinematographer Matthew Libatique told The Hollywood Reporter that the set was remarkably harmonious.
Don’t Worry Darling’s global haul is about the same what Disney’s re-release of James Cameron’s Avatar made this weekend, which goes to show just how popular the franchise still is. It also bodes well for December’s long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water. This has been a particularly strong year for adult-skewing dramas and original movies. Elvis, Nope, The Black Phone, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Dog and last week’s The Woman King have all been received warmly, while The Northman, Ambulance and Beast have performed exceedingly well on PVOD.
Wilde is coming off a beloved directorial debut — the coming-of-age comedy Booksmart — and Don’t Worry Darling is her ambitious attempt to show audiences her versatility behind the camera. The film is currently playing in over 4,100 North American theaters. You can watch the trailer here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.