Not every film can be a massive earner like Spider-Man: Brand New Day ($2.4 billion), L'Odyssée ($1.6 billion), Toy Story 5 ($1.1 billion), Michael ($1 billion), or Super Mario Galaxy, le film ($1 billion), which are all war machines that predictably raked in a fortune at the box office. But neither can every film be a surprise profitability success story like Obsession ($509 million) and Backrooms ($394 million) this year.

Case in point: The Dog Stars, Ridley Scott's adaptation of Peter Heller's book The Dog Stars, featuring Jacob Elordi trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world with his loyal canine companion. Between the promotional campaign struggling to clearly define the film (contemplative post-apocalypse? survival against barbarians? sappy romance?) and the late summer release date (rarely a good idea), there were already several concerning signals. Its current box office score confirms what its opening weekend foreshadowed: The Dog Stars is a commercial flop.

A Dog's Score

For its opening weekend in North America, The Dog Stars failed to shine, landing in fifth place with only $8 million from 3300 theaters. It trailed Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the newcomer Coyote vs. Acme, L'Odyssée, and Insidious 6. Aside from Tout l'argent du monde ($5 million in 2017) and Le Dernier Duel ($4 million in 2021), this marks one of Ridley Scott's worst openings, far behind Gladiator 2 ($55 million in 2024), Alien: Covenant ($36 million in 2017), Exodus ($24 million in 2014), Napoleon ($20 million in 2023), or even House of Gucci ($14 million in 2021).

In its second weekend, The Dog Stars plummeted to ninth place with $3.4 million, experiencing a 65% drop in attendance. This is similar to Napoleon (-64%) and worse than House of Gucci (-50%) and Le Dernier Duel (-56%), though still better than Alien: Covenant (-70%). To date, the film has only scraped together $13.7 million at the North American box office and is unlikely to go much further. The score of Le Dernier Duel ($10 million), one of Scott's biggest recent failures, is not far off. And the totals for Tout l'argent du monde ($25 million), House of Gucci ($53 million), and Napoleon ($61 million) seem entirely out of reach.

It's worth noting that the North American box office holds significant weight, as it's where a Hollywood studio recoups the largest portion of its revenue (approximately half).

Currently, The Dog Stars has accumulated $33 million globally. The problem is its reported minimum cost was $70 million, excluding promotion, according to Deadline. While this is less than the $110 million cited before its release, Puck suggests the budget was closer to $89 million. In any scenario, this is unwelcome news for 20th Century Studios (production and distribution), a Disney subsidiary, which was also behind the resounding failure of Le Dernier Duel. In 2021, that film, starring Matt Damon, Adam Driver, and Jodie Comer, flopped spectacularly with $30 million at the box office against a $100 million budget (excluding promotion).

Ridley Scott, however, has already moved on, preparing to shoot his 31st film: an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's L'Ile au trésor (Treasure Island), with Hugh Jackman cast as Long John Silver. Owen Cooper, the breakout star of the series Adolescence, is also expected to join. Such a film will undoubtedly require a relatively high budget, which Sony is providing. 20th Century Studios reportedly declined the project because Disney already has its pirate franchise with Pirates des Caraïbes, at least according to Deadline.