Agent Argylle couldn’t crack the field workplace code.

Matthew Vaughn’s globe-trotting spy comedy “Argylle” sputtered in its field workplace debut, incomes a dismal $18 million from 3,605 North American theaters. The film, backed by Apple and distributed by Common, price $200 million to supply and is shaping as much as be the 12 months’s first massive misfire.

Regardless of horrible critiques and awful viewers scores (it holds a 35% on Rotten Tomatoes and “C+” on CinemaScore), “Argylle” ranked No. 1 on the home and international field workplace. The movie added simply $17.3 million from 78 worldwide markets for a worldwide tally of $35.3 million.

Vaughn, the filmmaker of “The Kingsman” sequence and “X-Males: First Class,” meant to show “Argylle” right into a trilogy. However these grand plans are wanting quite a bit much less probably at this price — until there’s a dramatic uptick in ticket gross sales. Bryce Dallas Howard stars in “Argylle” because the reclusive creator of a well-liked sequence of espionage novels. Her life takes a flip when the plot of her fictional books begins to reflect the covert actions of an actual spy group. Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara and Samuel L. Jackson spherical out the forged.

“This can be a weak opening for a brand new motion comedy,” says David A. Gross, who runs the film consulting agency Franchise Leisure Analysis. “For an authentic [action comedy] to interrupt by way of, the humor has to leap off the display. That’s not occurring right here.”

This marks Apple’s third big-screen wager following Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” (which debuted to $23 million) and Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” (which opened to $20.6 million). And whereas it’s one of many deepest-pocketed firms on this planet, Apple presumably doesn’t need to be related to underperforming blockbusters. It will take roughly $500 million in international ticket gross sales to interrupt even at a conventional studio, an unlikely benchmark for “Argylle” and one which fewer than 10 movies have reached in 2022 and 2023.

“Argylle” topped the field workplace as a result of it’s the one new film to open in three weeks. Elsewhere, “The Beekeeper,” “Wonka” and different holdovers rounded out the highest 5.

In second place, a faith-based TV sequence “The Chosen” introduced in $6 million from 2,300 theaters over the standard weekend and $7.4 million since opening on Thursday. Fathom Occasions is rolling out the present’s Season 4 completely in cinemas with two-week runs of episodes one by way of three beginning on Feb. 1, adopted by episodes 4 by way of eight later within the month.

David Ayer’s motion thriller “The Beekeeper” landed in third place after spending three weekends within the No. 2 spot. The Amazon MGM movie collected $5.28 million from 3,277 venues, bringing its North American tally to $49.2 million and its worldwide complete to $122 million.

Timothee Chalamet’s “Wonka” remained within the high 4 for the eighth weekend in a row, including $4.7 million from 2,901 places. After two months of launch, “Wonka” has grossed $201 million domestically and greater than $550 million globally. The Warner Bros. musical comedy price $125 million and stands as a monetary success, because of the movie’s spectacular endurance.

Common and Illumination’s “Migration” swooped to the No. 5 spot with $4.2 million from 2,830 venues in its seventh weekend in theaters. The animated comedy a few household of geese who head south for winter has generated $106.2 million in North America and $210 million worldwide so far. With its $70 million price ticket, “Migration” managed to stay round on the massive display lengthy sufficient to show a revenue in its theatrical run.

“Imply Ladies” dropped to the sixth slot after three weekends in first place. The book-turned-2004 movie-turned-Broadway musical-turned-movie introduced in $4 million from 3,107 theaters. After 4 weekends of launch, “Imply Ladies” has amassed $66.3 million on the home field workplace and $92.7 million globally, a good outcome given the movie’s economical $36 million price range.

Though “The Beekeeper” and “Imply Ladies” had been modest surprises, the January field workplace was down roughly 46% from pre-pandemic instances and 15% behind final 12 months. By way of the general 12 months, says Franchise Leisure Analysis’s Gross, “the month was a step backwards.”