‘The Amateur’ Goes Pro With Solid Global Box Office Debut & Impressive Audience Response
The Oscar-winning Rami Malek seems to be returning to his roots. Having first broken out with a starring role in the television series Mr. Robot, Malek witnessed a further breakthrough after starring as Freddie Mercury in the musical biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. He won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance, and went on to appear in a couple of mega-budget hits. However, this week’s thriller The Amateur marks his first starring role since Bohemian Rhapsody six years ago. The movie opened to mostly positive reviews, but had an exceptional audience response.
It earned $15 million in its first weekend of release at the domestic box office, finishing third behind A Minecraft Movie and The King of Kings. The Amateur earned a further $17 million from overseas markets, for a global debut of $32 million. Directed by James Hawes, who remains best known for his work on television shows such as Black Mirror and Slow Horses, The Amateur also features Laurence Fishburne and Rachel Brosnahan in supporting roles. Brosnahan, of course, is set to star as Lois Lane in James Gunn‘s upcoming Superman reboot.
Produced on a reported budget of $60 million, The Amateur comes mere weeks after director Steven Soderbergh‘s similarly budgeted Black Bag. Another espionage thriller, the movie under-performed at the box office, grossing just over $30 million worldwide. With The Amateur essentially matching its performance in its opening weekend alone, one could expect it to at least recover its production costs when all is said and done. The Amateur has also already out-grossed David O. Russell‘s 2022 film Amsterdam, in which Malek played a supporting role.
‘The Amateur’ Is a Crowd-Pleaser
After winning the Academy Award for Best Actor, he played the antagonist in the James Bond movie No Time to Die. He also played a pivotal role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which won the Best Picture Oscar last year. The Amateur holds a borderline “fresh” 61% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences seem to be digging it. They’ve given it a far superior 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes. In his review, Collider’s Jeff Ewing wrote that “strong performances and some well-executed (but occasionally logic-straining) plot twists and set-pieces elevate the film into something well worth seeing.” Also featuring Holt McCallany, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Caitríona Balfe, The Amateur is playing in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
