{"id":911939,"date":"2026-09-27T19:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T19:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911939\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T19:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T19:24:14","slug":"with-primetime-robert-pattinson-is-2026s-biggest-box-office-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911939\/","title":{"rendered":"With ‘Primetime,’ Robert Pattinson is 2026’s Biggest Box Office Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Pattinson<\/a> has been a star since he first locked eyes on Kristen Stewart in 2008\u2019s \u201cTwilight.\u201d As Edward Cullen, a vampire blessed with brooding, Byronic good looks, Pattinson captivated audiences, becoming a heartthrob for a rising generation of moviegoers. <\/p>\n

But you sensed that he wasn\u2019t entirely comfortable with being a pinup, and Pattinson used his newfound bankability to build a resume filled with oddball roles for edgy auteurs like David Cronenberg (\u201cCosmopolis\u201d), Claire Denis (\u201cHigh Life\u201d), and Robert Eggers (\u201cThe Lighthouse\u201d). Critics praised the work, but only the most ardent Pattinson heads turned out and most of the films were more admired than seen.<\/p>\n

\"Godzilla<\/a> \"Taylor<\/a> <\/p>\n

That started to change when Pattinson re-embraced mainstream cinema; first with 2020\u2019s \u201cTenet\u201d and then with 2022\u2019s \u201cThe Batman,\u201d in which he played Bruce Wayne as a billionaire in desperate need of counseling. And Pattinson\u2019s star has risen to a whole new level this year, with \u201cThe Drama,\u201d \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d and now \u201cPrimetime.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cPrimetime,\u201d produced for just $15 million and starring Pattinson as a creepy \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d host Chris Hansen, opened to an impressive $19.2 million. The journalism drama was able to outperform expectations because Gen Z, which has become the most reliable moviegoing force<\/a>, turned up in droves to watch a movie about a TV show that was popular when they were kids. In fact, 69% of the opening weekend crowd was under the age of 30 and you get a sense that they have come of age with Pattinson, first getting introduced to him as \u201cTwilight\u2019s\u201d swooning bloodsucker and keeping tabs on him over the years as they came of age as film<\/a> lovers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Pattinson\u2019s second big hit of the year for A24<\/a>. In the spring, he and Zendaya drove the dark relationship comedy \u201cThe Drama\u201d to an impressive $134.9 million globally. It cost a mere $28 million to produce, so it will be highly profitable for the indie studio. There\u2019s just something about Pattinson\u2019s intensity and willingness to subvert his movie star image that seems to be perfectly aligned with A24\u2019s hip and transgressive brand.<\/p>\n

And while Pattinson doesn\u2019t get credit for the box office<\/a> performance of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d (that belongs to Christopher Nolan), its success only burnishes his movie star image. It will get another gloss when \u201cDune: Part Three\u201d opens in December and when \u201cThe Batman: Part II\u201d rolls into theaters in 2028. <\/p>\n

For more than a decade, agents and analysts have decried the death of the movie star. They\u2019ve noted that no one has come on the scene to replace the drawing power of aging icons like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, and Brad Pitt. That may be changing. Like his \u201cDune\u201d co-star Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, Pattinson has finally figured out a way to make challenging, provocative work that general audiences will embrace as well as cinephiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Pattinson has been a star since he first locked eyes on Kristen Stewart in 2008\u2019s \u201cTwilight.\u201d As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[24826,6471,49,48,361,75,1554,50503],"class_list":["post-911939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-a24","tag-box-office","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-robert-pattinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}