Being swallowed by a sperm whale is a pretty terrifying hook for a movie, but it was not enough to pull big crowds into theaters. Whalefall, the survival thriller from director Brian Duffield and 20th Century Studios, opened to an estimated $17.5 million worldwide in its first weekend, a disappointing start for a film that reportedly carries a $60 million budget.
Domestically, the film brought in $7.8 million from 3,065 theaters over the October 16th to 18th weekend, which was only good for fourth place. International markets added roughly $9.5 million over the same stretch.
How Whalefall's Opening Weekend Played Out
The film got off to a modest start with $900,000 from Thursday night previews, then earned about $3.1 million on Friday. Saturday dipped slightly to $2.8 million, and Sunday fell to $1.9 million to round out the weekend. It has been reported that tracking had the film opening somewhere between $10 million and $12 million, so the final number landed noticeably short of expectations.
The film added another $714,950 on Monday (October 19th), bringing its domestic total to just over $8.5 million. Internationally, it has now made about $9.6 million, which puts its worldwide total at roughly $18.2 million so far. Mexico has been the strongest overseas market with over $800,000, followed by the United Kingdom, China, France, Germany, and Japan.
It was also a crowded weekend at the box office. Street Fighter took the top spot with $31 million domestically, the A24 documentary You Can See Everything landed in second with $15 million from fewer than 900 screens, and the horror film Other Mommy held on to third place in its second weekend with $8.3 million.
Reviews Have Been Kinder Than The Box Office
The frustrating part for the studio is that people who have seen Whalefall generally seem to like it. The film sits at a 72% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, with an audience score around 80%. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a B, and it holds a 59 on Metacritic. That kind of reception could help the film hold up a little better over the coming weeks, but it will need a lot of help to get anywhere near its budget.
A Nightmare Inside A Sperm Whale
Whalefall stars Austin Abrams as Jay Gardiner, a young man who goes diving off the central coast of California to search for the remains of his late father, played by Josh Brolin. During the dive, Jay is swallowed by a massive sperm whale and finds himself trapped inside its belly with only an hour of oxygen left. As his time runs out, he realizes the hard lessons his father taught him might be the only way out.
The film is rated PG-13 for peril, violent content, bloody images, some strong language, and thematic content, and runs 106 minutes. Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy, and Emily Rudd round out the cast. Horror fans will recognize Abrams from Zach Cregger's Weapons and from Cregger's Resident Evil reboot, which he headlined just last month.
From Horror Novelist Daniel Kraus
The movie is based on the 2023 novel of the same name by Daniel Kraus, who co-wrote the screenplay with Duffield. Horror fans will know Kraus for his work with Guillermo del Toro, including co-writing the novel version of The Shape of Water. His original Whalefall novel was pitched as a scientifically accurate thriller about a diver pulled into the first of a sperm whale's four stomachs, and it became a USA Today bestseller.
Duffield is no stranger to genre audiences either. He wrote and directed the alien home invasion horror No One Will Save You and wrote the monster adventure Love and Monsters, which made him a natural choice for a creature-driven survival story. The film was produced by Brian Grazer, Duffield, Jeb Brody, and Allan Mandelbaum, with Imagine Entertainment also behind it.
Whalefall is now playing exclusively in theaters. Disney's own Disney+ page tells fans to check back for streaming updates after the theatrical run, so a home release could be where the film finally finds a bigger audience.
Are you planning to catch Whalefall on the big screen before it leaves theaters, or are you going to wait until it shows up on Disney+?
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