Controversial Anne Hathaway Film Has a Very Strange Box Office Start
The Anne Hathaway movie Mother Mary has had an unusual box office opener, to say the least. The A24 production had a limited release on April 17, and by “limited,” we mean just five theaters. So while its domestic opener doesn’t look that impressive, this surreal horror-drama and passion project from director and writer David Lowery looks to have some interest. On paper, Mother Mary has a lot going for it, including a high Rotten Tomatoes score from critics and a soundtrack that features seven original songs performed by Hathaway as the film’s titular pop idol. The actress is having a resurgence in 2026 too as she will star in five movies this year, notably The Devil Wears Prada 2 and The Odyssey. So it’s strange that Mother Mary looks like it’s being buried, though the film has already been mired in a few controversies.
Mother Mary has a strong but awkward limited release
Mother Mary has had a soft domestic opening of around $168,000 from April 17 to April 19, as reported by Box Office Mojo.
That’s admittedly a very low number for a theatrical release, but it’s actually strong when put into context. As explained by Brent Lang in Variety, “It did very well in limited release. It made about $170,000, which doesn’t sound like a huge number, but that’s from just five locations. So that’s one of the larger per screen averages of the year. The question is, will this movie work as it expands? I’m not positive.”
Not many movies come out with a limited release, in part because it impacts box office stats. While Mother Mary will have a wider theatrical release on April 24, its lower $168,000 domestic opener is what will count. By comparison, a report from BoxOffice Pro has the film earning $2 million to $4 million for its wider release across the US and Canada. Meanwhile, the analytics site BoxOfficeTheory doesn’t even include Mother Mary in its reports, perhaps due to the film’s unusual release schedule.
While Lang notes that David Lowery is a “very, very talented director” and believes that Hathaway and Michaela Coel (who plays Sam Anselm in the film) come with their own fanbases, he believes the timing of Mother Mary’s release is awkward. “Anne Hathaway has got ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ coming out in two weeks,” he remarks. “I’m not sure how much promotion she can do for [Mother Mary]. Anne Hathaway is also really shrewd at how she does press. She doesn’t oversaturate the market. She picks her spots.”
And that’s part of the rub. Hathaway has a lot on her plate and the leadup to The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is already looking like the breakout blockbuster hit of the summer, has taken over much of her current schedule. And that’s not including her roles this year as Odysseus’s wife Penelope in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, mother Denise in the sci-fi survival film The End of Oak Street, and author Verity Crawford in the psychological thriller Verity. In fact, early predictions for the 2027 Oscars already has Hathaway being one of the favorites to win for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Verity.
While critics have reacted favorably to Mother Mary, which has a 73% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes (as of April 21), the film has been review-bombed by some viewers. On April 16, the movie had a IMDB user score of 3.6 out of 10, with some criticizing the film for what they believe is an offensive portrayal of The Virgin Mary and others saying that the movie takes too much inspiration from the real-life American electropop duo MOTHERMARY. In February, the band posted an Instagram video debating whether they should sue the production given the similarity between them and the movie’s pop idol. Since then, the IMDB page for the film has seemingly taken down all of its user reviews (though this could be just a glitch).
Source: Comingsoon.net