No, the tabloid headlines about all the behind-the-scenes mishesgoss on Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling isn’t hurting ticket sales.
The Imax Live Experience advance screening for the Florence Pugh, Harry Styles and Chris Pine genre movie was the fast-selling for the large format exhibitor to date with 21 Imax locations selling out in 24 hours. And these are paid tickets; not gratis ones. The screening is being held Monday, Sept. 19 at 7:30 pm EST/4:30 pm PST and there’s a live-streamed Q&A being beamed in from the NYC premiere featuring Wilde, Styles, Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll, Sydney Chandler, Kate Berlant, Asif Ali and Douglas Smith.
All of this leading into the pic’s Sept. 23 release. Fingers crossed that this movie opens north of $20M as that would be a great fill at the dry autumn box office, and a wonderful start for the $35M production shot in Palm Springs. Key for Warner Bros to cross this movie is to get Styles’ fans in seats; his fandom fervent. The pic is tracking hot with women under 25, so knock on wood; it’s looking like mission accomplished.
The live streamed event has sold more than 13K tickets across more than 100 IMAX locations throughout North America. Sold out locations span a variety of markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, and more. More than 15 additional locations are above 50% sold out with more than ten days to go before the September 19th event.
Much has been written about Pugh going silent in her press tour for this film, however, the Oscar nominated actress is truly busy with production on Dune 2: She’s not even here at TIFF doing PR for her Netflix movie, The Wonder. Once you see the movie, you’ll see, Pugh is in every single frame. She not only carries the film; but it’s a love letter to her.