Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu Christmas film Red One tops box office in US at $34 million | Hollywood

Jake Kasdan’s Christmas action-comedy film Red One with Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu and JK Simmons debuted at the box office with a $34.1 million haul, according to a report by Variety. The film was reportedly released on November 15 in 4,302 North American theatres. (Also Read: Dwayne Johnson admits to peeing in bottles and being late to set, but not by 8 hours: ‘That was a bananas amount’)

Red One box office report

The numbers, called ‘soft’, were still enough for the film to top the domestic box office in the US, beating Venom: The Last Dance. The film, based on a $250 million budget minus the $100 million marketing budget, debuted with a 33% Tomatometer rating and a 90% Popcornmeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The report also claims that Red One ‘sparks a debate’ about what can be ‘qualified as success’ when streaming services affect theatricals. While the film, initially commissioned for streaming, will play through the holiday season, the opening numbers are still reportedly considered less given the film’s budget.

The report also states that domestic box office revenues in the US remain down more than 11% from 2023 and almost 27% from 2019, according to Comscore.

About Red One

Red One sees Simmons’s Santa get kidnapped by Dwayne, the head of security at the North Pole, who is heading on a rescue mission. Chris plays a bounty hunter in the film. Gladiator 2, Wicked and Moana 2 are expected to boost the box office numbers.

In April, The Wrap wrote an article claiming that Dwayne’s on-set behaviour on Red One cost the production $250 million. They also reported that the actor had made it a habit in his movie sets to pee in water bottles when he wasn’t near his trailer to avoid wasting time by going to the public restroom.

In a recent interview with GQ, Dwayne admitted to peeing in bottles and being late to set, denying that he was late by 8 hours.