Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, “Bob Marley: One Love” stars Kingsley Ben-Adir (“Secret Invasion,” “Barbie”) as the legendary musician. The film was met with mediocre reviews from critics, sitting at just 43% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the audience score is a stellar 95%, with the biopic also earning an A CinemaScore. In short, audiences dig it even if quite a few critics were soft on it. In the end, that matters far more when it comes to word of mouth. Yes, the $70 million budget stands out, but this one may well have long legs since competition in February is scarce. A final total somewhere in the neighborhood of the Elton John biopic “Rocketman” ($25 million opening/$196 million worldwide) feels in the cards.
Meanwhile, director S.J. Clarkson’s Marvel film isn’t winning over too many viewers. The film, which boasts a cast led by Dakota Johnson (“Fifty Shades of Grey,” “The Lost Daughter”), has been trashed by critics in the early going, sitting at just 15% on Rotten Tomatoes with a very mediocre C+ CinemaScore. Word of mouth figures to be bad for this one, and because it had such a long opening frame, the second weekend drop could be brutal. The only saving grace here is that Sony kept the budget on the low side for a superhero film at $80 million. So, at the very least, even if it doesn’t make money, the losses will be mitigated.
Even so, it’s yet another sign of audience tastes changing. Last year was hard on superhero movies, with only “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ranking as outright successes. Everything else struggled, with movies like “The Marvels” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” flopping particularly hard. The days of a bad comic book movie still being able to make bank seem to be behind us. But the fact that audiences will show up for a crowd-pleasing biopic is welcome news — at least to the financial health of the industry.
“Bob Marley: One Love” and “Madame Web” are both in theaters now.