Kingsley Ben-Adir (“Secret Invasion,” “One Night in Miami”) stars as the “No Woman No Cry” singer, with Lashana Lynch (“No Time to Die”) and James Norton (“Happy Valley”) co-starring. The film was made in conjunction with the Marley family and chronicles the life of the late singer, who has sold more than 75 million albums. Despite passing away at the age of 36 in the early ’80s, his music has remained quite popular. Paramount is banking on that popularity translating to ticket sales at the box office.
Luckily, recent history is largely on the studio’s side here. Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” would be the high watermark, with the 2022 biopic centered on Elvis Presley taking in $288 million worldwide and garnering several Oscar nominations. That movie opened to $31 million in June of that year. On the other end of the spectrum, we have “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” which topped out with just shy of $60 million worldwide after opening to a little less than $5 million in December 2022. Based on the early numbers, it seems like “One Love” is going to fall somewhere in between those two.
A better comparison might be 2019’s Elton John biopic “Rocketman,” which also hailed from Paramount. Against a $40 million budget, it opened to $25.7 million en route to $196 million worldwide. One imagines the studio tried to keep the budget in a similar range for this one. If that is indeed the case, the numbers could be in its favor. If critical opinion is positive, this one has the opportunity to leg out as there is very little meaningful competition until “Dune: Part Two” arrives on March 1.
“Bob Marley: One Love” is set to hit theaters on February 14, 2024.