Box Office: ‘Argylle’ Makes $1.7 Million in Previews
“Argylle” is looking to slowly ascend the box office charts this weekend.
Matthew Vaughn’s latest film, a star-studded action comedy about a spy novelist, opened with $1.7 million in Thursday previews at the box office.
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“Argylle,” which stars an avalanche of A-listers like Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Dua Lipa and many more, is expected to make between $15 million and $20 million in its opening weekend. It’ll beat “Mean Girls,” the musical adaptation of Tina Fey’s classic comedy, which has been ruling over the box office for the past three weeks in a quiet January.
Universal is distributing the globe-trotting spy film, and Apple produced and financed it for $200 million. For any other company, “Argylle’s” projected opening would be disastrous, but Apple’s $3 trillion market cap means it won’t be as negatively affected by a poor box office showing. Just like Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” (which opened to $23 million) and Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” ($20.6 million opening), these Apple-backed films will generate buzz for Apple Studios and the Apple TV+ streaming service. However, the low preview grosses and poor reviews signal a sharp misfire for “Argylle.”
In the film, Howard stars as Elly Conway, an introverted author who writes about a fictional spy named Argylle, played by Cavill. However, the lines between fiction and reality blur when Elly gets entangled in a bout of espionage and learns that Agent Argylle is real. The cast also includes Ariana DeBose, John Cena, Catherine O’Hara, Samuel L. Jackson, Sofia Boutella and Rob Delaney.
“Argylle” is the only new release this week, and Sony’s superhero film “Madame Web” and Paramount’s biopic “Bob Marley: One Love,” both out Feb. 14, will likely dethrone it.
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