\n\tIt\u2019s alive, but it\u2019s not exactly showing signs of life.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe Bride<\/a>!,\u201d director Maggie Gyllenhaal<\/a>\u2018s punk rock, feminist reinterpretation of \u201cThe Bride of Frankenstein,\u201d flatlined at the box office<\/a> with $7.3 million domestically and $13.6 million globally in its first weekend of release. That\u2019s a terrible result given that Warner Bros. spent $90 million to produce the R-rated film, not including a reported $65 million on marketing expenses.<\/p>\n \n\tSet in the 1930s, \u201cThe Bride!\u201d follows a very lonely Frankenstein\u2019s monster (Christian Bale) and his undead love interest (Jessie Buckley) as deranged outlaws on the run. Middling reviews, frighteningly bad audience scores and a puzzling release date didn\u2019t help the turnout for \u201cThe Bride!,\u201d which landed wildly behind the studio\u2019s projections of $16 million to $18 million domestically and $40 million globally. This ends a remarkable winning streak for Warner Bros. after a string of nine No. 1 hits, including \u201cA Minecraft Movie,\u201d \u201cSinners,\u201d \u201cWeapons\u201d and \u201cWuthering Heights.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHere,\u00a0Variety\u00a0autopsies five reasons why \u201cThe Bride!\u201d failed to inject new life into the box office.<\/p>\n \t\tInauspicious release date\t<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe Bride!\u201d was originally scheduled to debut on Oct. 3, 2025, which made sense given its proximity to Halloween. There\u2019s a reason that horror movies tend to thrive during the spookiest month of the year. So then why would Warner Bros. executives relocate a film where (spoiler alert!) the Halloween anthem \u201cMonster Mash\u201d plays over the end credits to a time as random as early March? Sure, this calendar placement has been favorable to the studio\u2019s recent tentpoles, including \u201cThe Batman\u201d and \u201cDune: Part Two.\u201d (It helped that audiences actually liked those films.) But \u201cThe Bride!\u201d might have done nominally better in theaters during the season of the dead.<\/p>\n \t\tToo much \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d too little time\t<\/p>\n \n\tOne reason \u201cThe Bride!\u201d was pushed to 2026 was to distance itself from Guillermo del Toro\u2019s take on \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d starring Jacob Elordi as the stitched-together monster known as the Creature. That movie, which premiered last August at Venice Film Festival and landed on Netflix in November, has remained in the cultural conversation as an awards player. (\u201cFrankenstein\u201d was nominated for nine Oscars, including best picture.) Even though Gyllenhaal and del Toro\u2019s movies were vastly different, the Gothic subject matter was too similar to be released just a few months apart. Hollywood, maybe it\u2019s time to put a pin in Mary Shelley adaptations?<\/p>\n \t\tBudget gone wild\t<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe Bride!\u201d cost way, way too much for an R-rated, genre-bending crime story with arthouse ambitions. When Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy began crafting their slate as Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs, they placed a big emphasis on expensive, auteur-driven swings. It paid off in the case of \u201cSinners,\u201d an Oscar darling that generated $370 million globally against a $90 million budget. And much of the studio\u2019s 2025 slate was populated by commercial winners, such as \u201cA Minecraft Movie\u201d and \u201cFinal Destination 6,\u201d which generated some enviable profit margins<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tBut, so far, their other gambles lost a lot of money: 2024\u2019s \u201cJoker: Folie \u00e0 Deux\u201d was rejected with $207 million against a $250 million budget; 2025\u2019s sci-fi satire \u201cMickey 17\u201d stumbled with $117 million against a $118 million budget; and \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d another awards frontrunner, only generated $209 million against a $140 million budget. <\/p>\n \n\tIn a note to press on Sunday morning, Warner Bros. defended the results of \u201cThe Bride!\u201d by writing, \u201cIn an increasingly \u2018risk-averse\u2019 business like ours, we believe the business is better served with studios taking bold swings on originals like this one.\u201d That\u2019s true \u2014 and Hollywood shouldn\u2019t stop investing in originality. But there has to be a way to take chances without betting the farm.<\/p>\n \t\tA press tour that forgot to sell the movie\t<\/p>\n