No Jazz For ‘Babylon’ At Domestic Box Office With $5M+ Debut; Brad Pitt-Margot Robbie Epic Won’t Hit $250M Breakeven: Here’s Why

deadline.com:

Damien Chazelle’s$80M 1920s-set Hollywood epic Babylon went up in a blaze of fire at the domestic box office this past weekend with an awful $5.3M 4-day start.

Say what you will about harsh winter conditions impacting moviegoing across the country, however, this movie, which was greenlit by a previous Paramount regime and greatly supported by the new Brian Robbins administration, was against the odds as soon as it previewed to a cynical press more than a month ago at the Academy theater to lackluster reviews at 56% Rotten Tomatoes.

Further burying the pic’s fate were audience exits including an awful C+ CinemaScore and PostTrak of 74% and 47% definite recommend, not to mention its 3 hour and 8 minute running time.

Babylon is the lowest wide release stateside opening for star Margot Robbie at $3.6M, beating Amsterdam‘s $6.4M, as well as Brad Pitt as leading man, lower than the $4M start of 1993’s True Romance.