{"id":908829,"date":"2026-09-28T17:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T17:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/908829\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T17:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T17:56:09","slug":"primetime-box-office-proves-robert-pattinsons-star-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/908829\/","title":{"rendered":"Primetime Box Office Proves Robert Pattinson’s Star Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPlenty of moviegoers had a seat for \u201cPrimetime<\/a>,\u201d a true-crime thriller starring Robert Pattinson<\/a> as Dateline NBC journalist and \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d host Chris Hansen.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe A24<\/a> movie landed on the higher end of box office expectations, scoring $19.2 million from 2,863 North American venues in its opening weekend. Although \u201cPrimetime\u201d ranked in fourth place on domestic charts \u2014 behind Disney\u2019s \u201cAvengers: Endgame Encore\u201d ($26 million), Sony\u2019s \u201cResident Evil\u201d reboot ($23 million) and fellow newcomer, Paramount\u2019s wilderness adventure \u201cThe Heart of the Beast\u201d ($20 million) \u2014 it cost just $15 million to produce and is already well-positioned to turn a profit theatrically.<\/p>\n

\n\tNotably, \u201cPrimetime\u201d marks the third-best opening weekend ever for A24, behind this summer\u2019s sleeper hit \u201cBackrooms\u201d ($81.4 million) and Alex Garland\u2019s 2024 dystopian \u201cCivil War\u201d ($25.5 million) and, impressively, above Josh Safdie and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet\u2019s 2025 ping-pong drama \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d ($15.7 million). This is Pattinson\u2019s second consecutive hit with A24 following this spring\u2019s dark relationship dramedy \u201cThe Drama,\u201d which co-starred Zendaya and opened to $14.3 million domestically.<\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by Lance Oppenheim, \u201cPrimetime\u201d revolves around the production of \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d and Hansen\u2019s increasingly frenetic attempts to confront child sexual predators in complex sting operations. Critics embraced the movie, which holds an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Moviegoers gave \u201cPrimetime\u201d a mixed \u201cB\u201d grade on CinemaScore exit polls, which isn\u2019t all that surprising given the film\u2019s intentionally unsettling nature.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cConsidering the tough subject material, the audience score is good,\u201d says David A. Gross, who publishes the box office newsletter FranchiseRe. \u201cThis is a hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHere are five reasons \u201cPrimetime\u201d was, well, ready for primetime at the box office.<\/p>\n

\t\tRobert Pattinson\u2019s Star Power\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s been a big year for Pattinson, the \u201cTwilight\u201d heartthrob-turned-bona-fide movie star. In 2026, he\u2019s been in \u201cThe Drama,\u201d Christopher Nolan\u2019s summer smash \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d and will appear in the upcoming sci-fi sequel \u201cDune: Part III.\u201d While he shares the credit with Zendaya and Nolan for those wins, Pattinson is undeniably the draw in \u201cPrimetime.\u201d More than 75% of audiences cited Pattinson as their No. 1 reason for buying a ticket, according to exit polls from PostTrak. What\u2019s more impressive is Pattinson managed to get people to theaters without too splashy a press tour. (In addition to starring in just about every movie this year, he\u2019s been busy filming \u201cThe Batman: Part II\u201d in London.) He didn\u2019t scale the Sphere in Las Vegas<\/a> or advertise on blimps to get out the word about \u201cPrimetime.\u201d Pattinson showed up at Venice Film Festival, where \u201cPrimetime\u201d bowed to raves, and participated in some phone interviews<\/a>. But otherwise, he let the movie do the talking.<\/p>\n

\t\tGen Z, Assemble!\t<\/p>\n

\n\tOpening weekend crowds for \u201cPrimetime\u201d skewed heavily Gen Z, with 69% of audiences under the age of 30. That\u2019s especially significant because most Zoomers were way too young to watch \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d when the show aired from 2004-2007. It helped that \u201cPrimetime\u201d tapped into their love for the true-crime genre. This also highlights the audience that A24 has cultivated over the years, thanks to edgy, aesthetic and conversation-starting arthouse favorites like \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d \u201cLady Bird,\u201d \u201cEverything Everywhere All at Once\u201d and more. \u201cPrimetime\u201d is the indie studio\u2019s second release of the year to become a full-fledged event for younger moviegoers. The first was \u201cBackrooms,\u201d which became a wildly profitable breakout sensation with $400 million against a $10 million budget. It\u2019s all a huge relief to theater owners, who worried that younger generations viewed the big screen as outdated.<\/p>\n

\n\tPattinson, meanwhile, might credit the win to Gen Z supporting their own. Pattinson has joked that he\u2019s Gen Z (despite being 40, which makes him squarely a Millennial). During Vanity Fair\u2019s Lie Detector test<\/a>, his \u201cDie My Love\u201d co-star Jennifer Lawrence hilariously accused Pattinson of thinking he\u2019s Gen Z because he likes to cold-call people on FaceTime. He claimed his birth year \u201cdoesn\u2019t matter,\u201d to which she replied, \u201cI believe that you believe you\u2019re Gen Z.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\tChris Hansen\u2019s Marketing Blitz\t<\/p>\n

\n\tA24 ran an effective social media-heavy campaign for \u201cPrimetime.\u201d But whether he intended to or not, the real-life Hansen also stoked a ton of interest by continuously speaking out against the movie. Way before he got to see the film, Hansen was vocal in his criticism about Pattinson\u2019s \u201coverly dramatic\u201d portrayal of him. He also stressed that \u201cPrimetime\u201d isn\u2019t a literal account of his career and questioned the studio\u2019s \u201cmotive\u201d in dramatizing the making of the hit reality series. When Hansen finally watched \u201cPrimetime,\u201d he wasn\u2019t all that enthused<\/a>. He called the film \u201cso bizarre\u201d and \u201cdetached from reality.\u201d In the process, he made plenty of headlines and put \u201cPrimetime\u201d on the radar of \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d fans across the country.<\/p>\n

\t\tVenice Fanfare \t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Venice Film Festival can be hit or miss in terms of launching a movie into the mainstream. For every critical and commercial success like \u201cA Star Is Born,\u201d \u201cThe Shape of Water\u201d and \u201cLa La Land,\u201d there\u2019s a high-profile misfire \u00e0 la \u201cJoker: Folie \u00e0 Deux\u201d or \u201cAfter the Hunt.\u201d Venice worked as the kickoff for \u201cPrimetime,\u201d which was embraced with an enthusiastic seven-minute standing ovation<\/a>. Since there weren\u2019t many Hollywood-backed movies at the glamorous Italian festival, \u201cPrimetime\u201d became the talk of Lido \u2014 leading to weeks of positive world-of-mouth before general audiences saw the film. That\u2019s amore! <\/p>\n

\t\tA Director to Watch\t<\/p>\n

\n\tOppenheim, the 30-year-old filmmaker known for documentaries like \u201cSome Kind of Heaven\u201d and HBO\u2019s \u201cRen Faire,\u201d was already emerging as a major emerging talent after \u201cPrimetime,\u201d his narrative feature debut. And then, just days after \u201cPrimetime\u201d launched at Venice, Oppenheim reached a new level of fame after he and comedian Nathan Fielder unveiled their top-secret documentary \u201cYou Can See Everything,\u201d about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, at Telluride Film Festival<\/a>. Seemingly overnight, Oppenheim found himself on everyone\u2019s radar, which brought even more eyes to this project. Call it the Elizabeth Holmes bump?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plenty of moviegoers had a seat for \u201cPrimetime,\u201d a true-crime thriller starring Robert Pattinson as Dateline NBC journalist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[29193,64,63,447,134,122910,13678],"class_list":["post-908829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-a24","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-primetime","tag-robert-pattinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}