‘Don’t Worry Darling’ shrugs off drama, opening with USD 19.2M

After off-screen drama threatened to consume Olivia Wilde's "Don't Worry Darling," the Warner Bros. release opened No. 1 at the box office, debuting with $19.2 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, "Don't Worry Darling" was engulfed by a storm of controversies that revolved around everything from Pugh's allegedly strained relationship with Wilde to whether Styles might have even spit on co-star Chris Pine at the film's Venice Film Festival premiere. (Styles denied it.) The movie, too, was torched by critics (38% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and arrived in theaters with more baggage than any recent release.

For an original film that cost $35 million to make, a $19.2 million launch was solid — and slightly more than the studio had forecast. A large number of moviegoers — including plenty of Styles fans — turned up to see what all the fuss was about.

But the release of "Don't Worry Darling," playing in 4,113 theaters, was also no home run. Audiences gave it a B- CinemaScore, and ticket buyers fell off on Saturday after more promising results on Thursday and Friday. Warner Bros. said the audience was 66% female. The film added $10.8 million internationally.

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore, said that, ultimately, bad publicity was good publicity for Wilde's follow-up to her directorial debut, the 2019 teen comedy "Booksmart."

"The latest from Olivia Wilde benefited from the heightened awareness and mainstream press coverage that made 'Don't Worry Darling' the virtual water cooler film of the moment and raised its FOMO factor to even greater heights and this paid big dividends at the box office," said Dergarabedian.