Robert Pattinson's 2025 Sci-Fi Box Office Flop Is Finding An Audience On HBO Max

After winning four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, for his masterful dark comedy "Parasite," Bong Joon Ho suddenly went from cult favorite to bona-fide A-list filmmaker. For cinephiles who'd been fans of the South Korean director since he broke through with "Barking Dogs Never Bite" and the spellbinding serial killer thriller "Memories of Murder," there was both excitement and concern over how he'd adapt to the commercial demands of an industry that likes for its movies to choose a tone and stick with it until the end credits. While the filmmaker could probably knock out some missionary-position studio release, it'd be a waste of his singular gift for deftly segueing from laughs to tears to armrest-gripping thrills — sometimes in the same scene!

Fortunately, Warner Bros. let Director Bong be Director Bong with his science-fiction epic "Mickey 17." Unfortunately, production chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy had no confidence in the movie from a marketing perspective, which led to the film getting kicked around the release schedule — though, to be fair, some of this uncertainty was due to the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike — before hitting theaters on March 7, 2025. The trailers and ads chose a lane for the film, selling it as a zany interplanetary satire. There's obviously much more to the film than this, but WB remained tepidly focused on one tone. Moviegoers could no doubt sense this uncertainty and generally took a wait-for-streaming approach to Director Bong's bold, beautifully crafted film.

This wait ended when the movie began streaming on HBO Max on May 23, 2025. Now, just three months after "Mickey 17" flopped with a $132 million global box office gross against a $118 million budget, it's finally finding its audience.

According to FlixPatrol, "Mickey 17" was the most-watched movie on HBO Max in the U.S. on May 31 and is still in the streamer's top five as of this writing. This doesn't automatically mean that people love the film (the widely loathed "Joker: Folie à Deux" was also popular early in its streaming run), but, anecdotally, I can tell you that people have been telling me how much they dig it. As has been the case with Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" (which has bcome a theatrical sensation), they like that Director Bong has delivered an original movie that surprises them every step of the way.

It will take years before "Mickey 17" gets close to eking out a profit, but if it becomes a repeat-viewing favorite, there's a chance it could eventually get in the black via syndication and licensing deals. All that matters for movie lovers, though, is that Director Bong didn't land in Director Jail. He's already got his next film in production (an animated project titled "The Valley" featuring the distinctive voice of Werner Herzog), and he will likely remain in high demand so long as his movies continue to earn overwhelmingly positive reviews. We're lucky to have this one-of-a-kind artist pushing the boundaries of cinema at a time when studios are more risk-averse than ever.