Daisy Ridley's New Movie Is Off To A Terrible Start At The Box Office
Daisy Ridley, the cornerstone star of Disney's recent "Star Wars" trilogy, has a new movie out in theaters right now. Unfortunately, it seems like getting that news out to the masses proved challenging as hardly anyone went to see the film in question, which is director Neil Burger's "The Marsh King's Daughter." Sad to say, the movie tanked on its opening weekend, failing to even crack the Top 10 on the charts despite playing on more than 1,000 screens.
"The Marsh King's Daughter" debuted at just $849,120 over the weekend, putting it all the way at number 13 on the charts, per Box Office Mojo. Even Disney's re-release of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" ($889,000) made more, and we're talking about a 30-year-old movie that has been in re-release for three weekends.
Lionsgate is distributing "The Marsh King's Daughter," which is based on the best-selling book of the same name, but the production ultimately hails from STX, a studio that has had its fair share of troubles in recent years. In short, the company has had more hits than misses, which put it in a precarious situation financially. And it looks like we're going to have to put this one in the miss column as well.
The film (which you can watch the trailer for right here) centers on Helena (Ridley), whose estranged father is the infamous Marsh King (Ben Mendelsohn), a man who kept her and her mother captive in the wilderness for years. When her father escapes from prison, Helena is forced to try and outmaneuver the person who taught her everything she knows. The cast also includes Garrett Hedlund, Caren Pistorius, Brooklynn Prince, and Gil Birmingham.
Daisy Ridley deserves better
Critics haven't been particularly kind to the film, which currently holds a 33% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience score is much better at 76%, but with ticket sales that low and spread out across the country, it's tough to generate any meaningful word of mouth. Making matters more complicated is the fact that Daisy Ridley, Ben Mendelsohn, and the rest of the cast couldn't make the press rounds to promote the film as the Screen Actors Guild strike is still dragging on. If they were free to talk to the media, that undoubtedly would have helped get the word out for a movie that had a pretty conservative marketing spend, by the looks of it.
This isn't what Lionsgate, STX, or anyone involved was hoping for. The studio even pushed back the release date to get out of the way of "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour," but that move did little to help. One assumes this was geared towards the same audience that helped make "Where the Crawdads Sing," a major sleeper hit last year, with the thriller taking in $140 million worldwide against a $24 million budget. No such luck here.
Looking at Ridley's career, this feels particularly unfortunate. Her star-making turn as Rey in a galaxy far, far away, dating back to the record-breaking "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," should have opened the door to a big career. Instead, she's had little luck generating hits outside of that franchise over the years, with "Murder on the Orient Express" and the animated "Peter Rabbit" being the exceptions. Misfires like "Chaos Walking" and Netflix's "The Bubble" haven't helped. Maybe that's why she's returning as Rey in a new "Star Wars" movie. Regardless, it very much feels like a star of her caliber deserves better.