Note: As the following article partly focuses on the financial earnings of Anora, any and all comments by HE commenter “This Is Heavy, Doc“, a relentless Anora buzzkiller and piss-sprayer, will be instantly deleted.
A friend reminded me yesterday that despite its overwhelming popularity with both critics and ticket-buyers, Sean Baker‘s Anora (Neon), which opened semi-wide in early November after a couple of weeks in select urban venues, managed to tally only $14,554,317 domestically and $15,699,037 internationally.
A $30 million haul is far from disastrous for a modestly-budgeted indie, of course, and Anora will continue to thrive on streaming platforms, especially if it snags several Oscar nominations (i.e., all but guaranteed).
But it struck me as odd or at least curious that Halina Reijn‘s Babygirl (A24), which opened on 12.25 but has sparked much less enthusiasm among critics as well as Joe and Jane Popcorn, has managed to bring in $21,738,200 in two and a half weeks of domestic theatrical play.
Don’t get me wrong — it’s great that Babygirl (of which I’m an ardent fan) has connected (it needs to make $50 million to break even) but given the fact that ticket-buyers are far less taken with it than Anora, what accounts for it having made more money?
That’s a simplistic, dumb-guy question, I realize. My first thought is that ticket-buyers were too lazy and stupid to have vigorously embraced Anora in November and early December because of Neon’s less-than-overwhelming promotion plus the no-star cast. Plus Babygirl‘s Christmas opening along with the name-brand attraction of Nicole Kidman obviously counted for something.
It’s just odd that despite a mixed or disappointed reception Babygirl has earned $21M in less than three weeks while Anora managed to earn only two-thirds of that amount over a five or six-week period. Younger urban audiences have flocked to it, but your suburban and rural slowboats…not so much.