The Brave One Movie Box Office: Jodie Foster Thriller Fizzles

The Brave One movie with Jodie Foster. Neil Jordan’s revenge drama starring the two-time Best Actress Oscar winner has turned out to be a late summer box office disappointment despite having landed atop the domestic chart.

The Brave One movie box office: With little competition, Jodie Foster revenge thriller is a weak-kneed no. 1 on the lackluster domestic chart

Sept. 14–16 weekend box office: Despite less than enthusiastic reviews – and thanks to a dearth of strong competitors – Warner Bros.’ Neil Jordan-directed revenge thriller The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster, was the no. 1 choice of North American (U.S. and Canadian only) moviegoers, grossing $13.5 million from 2,755 theaters according to final studio figures found at boxofficemojo.com.

A little perspective: The Brave One’s per-theater average was an underwhelming $4,889. (We were unable to find reliable figures for the movie’s budget.)

For comparison’s sake: Jodie Foster’s previous thriller, Robert Schwentke’s Flightplan (Spike Lee’s Inside Man doesn’t count; she has a subordinate role in that one), opened with $24.6 million from 3,424 locations in late September 2005. Flightplan went on to rake in $89.7 million domestically and (an estimated) $133.7 million elsewhere.

Oscar-pedigreed talent

Besides the two-time Best Actress Oscar winner (The Accused, 1988; The Silence of the Lambs, 1991) in the role of a New Yorker determined to avenge her fiancé’s murder and to retrieve her abducted dog, The Brave One also features nominee Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow, 2005) and veteran winner Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard, 1980), plus Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt, and Zoë Kravitz.

For the record: Neil Jordan is an Oscar winner as well – in the Best Original Screenplay category for the 1992 psychological/political thriller The Crying Game, for which he also received a Best Director nod.

Global box office dud

Update: The Neil Jordan-Jodie Foster collaboration The Brave One ultimately collected a paltry $36.8 million domestically and an even less impressive (admittedly, likely incomplete) $33 million internationally. Worldwide total: $69.8 million – or about $20 million less than Flightplan earned in North America alone.

For The Brave One to have been profitable at the box office, it must have cost at most around $20–$23 million (as always, not including marketing and distribution expenses), which isn’t very likely.

Its top international markets were Germany ($4.3 million), Japan ($3.3 million), and Spain ($3.2 million).

3:10 to Yuma with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale: Domestic box office disappointment.

Mr. Woodcock & 3:10 to Yuma underwhelm

Trailing The Brave One, Craig Gillespie’s comedy Mr. Woodcock took in a so-so (estimated) $9.1 million from 2,231 venues on its debut weekend. In the cast: Oscar winners Billy Bob Thornton (as screenwriter for Sling Blade, 1996) and Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking, 1995), in addition to Seann William Scott and Amy Poehler. Distributor: New Line Cinema.

Last weekend’s top movie, James Mangold’s 3:10 to Yuma, slipped to no. 3, bringing in $8.9 million (down 36 percent) from 2,667 locations. Featuring Christian Bale as a one-legged rancher escorting Oscar-winning outlaw Russell Crowe (Gladiator, 2000) to the train that will take him to prison, the Lionsgate-distributed Western remake has scored an unsatisfactory $28.3 million after ten days. Budget: $55 million.

Also in the 3:10 to Yuma cast: Logan Lerman as rancher Bale’s adventurous eldest son, Dallas Roberts, Ben Foster, Vinessa Shaw, Alan Tudyk, Gretchen Mol, and veteran Peter Fonda (Easy Rider, Ulee’s Gold). Directed by Delmer Daves, the 1957 original starred Glenn Ford and Van Heflin.

Latest Hollywood Western to bomb abroad

Update: The Russell Crowe-Christian Bale Western 3:10 to Yuma ultimately collected a mediocre (relative to its overall cost) $53.6 million domestically and a disastrous – though hardly surprising for an Oscar buzzless Western* – $16.4 million internationally. Worldwide total: $70 million.

3:10 to Yuma’s top international markets were the United Kingdom/Ireland ($2.4 million) and Australia ($2.4 million).

* Kevin Costner’s multiple Oscar winner Dances with Wolves (1990) was a major international hit (an estimated $240 million) while Clint Eastwood’s multiple Oscar winner Unforgiven (1992) was a solid performer for the genre (an estimated $58 million).

As for the Best Picture Oscar buzzless Westerns, relatively strong international performers like Richard Donner’s Maverick (1994; $81.4 million), starring Mel Gibson and The Brave One’s Jodie Foster, and Barry Sonnenfeld’s Wild Wild West (1999; $108.3 million), starring Kevin Kline and Will Smith, are the exceptions that prove the rule (e.g. – in the first decade of the 21st century – The Missing, Open Range, The Alamo, Seraphim Falls, Appaloosa, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, most of which also bombed in the U.S.).

Late summer domestic box office bits

More domestic box office news from this past weekend:

• Shim Hyung-rae’s South Korean-made Dragon Wars: D-War debuted at no. 4 with a measly $5.4 million from 2,277 venues. Cast: Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, and veteran Oscar nominee Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, 1997). Distributor: Freestyle Releasing.
• At no. 6, writer-director-producer Rob Zombie’s Halloween, an updated $15 million version of John Carpenter’s 1978 cult classic, grossed $4.9 million (down 49 percent on its third weekend). Cume: A respectable $51.1 million. Cast: Tyler Mane, Scout Taylor-Compton, and veterans Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) and Brad Dourif (Oscar nominee for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975). Distributors: The Weinstein Company | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
• At no. 9, Robert Ben Garant’s sports comedy Balls of Fury grossed $3.3 million (down 41 percent on its third weekend). Cume: $28.9 million. Cast: Dan Fogler, George Lopez, Maggie Q, and Oscar winner Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter, 1978). Distributor: Rogue Pictures.

“The Brave One Movie Box Office” endnotes

Unless otherwise noted, “The Brave One Movie Box Office: Jodie Foster Thriller Fizzles” box office information via Box Office Mojo. Budget info – which should be taken with a grain of salt – via BOM and/or other sources (e.g., the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Screen Daily, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Deadline.com, etc.).

Comments about The Brave One, Mr. Woodcock, 3:10 to Yuma, Halloween, and other titles being hits/profitable or flops/money-losers at the box office (see paragraph below) are based on the available data about their production budget, additional marketing and distribution expenses (as a general rule of thumb, around 50 percent of the production cost), and worldwide gross (as a general rule of thumb when it comes to the Hollywood studios, around 50–55 percent of the domestic gross and 40 percent of the international gross goes to the distributing/producing companies).

Bear in mind that data regarding rebates, domestic/international sales/pre-sales, and other credits and/or contractual details that help to alleviate/split production costs and apportion revenues are oftentimes unavailable, and that reported international grosses may be incomplete (i.e., not every territory is fully – or even partially – accounted for).

Also bear in mind that ancillary revenues (domestic/global television rights, home video sales, streaming, merchandising, etc.) can represent anywhere between 40–70 percent of a movie’s total take. However, these revenues and their apportionment are only infrequently made public.

Jodie Foster The Brave One movie image: Warner Bros.

Russell Crowe and Christian Bale 3:10 to Yuma movie image: Lionsgate.

“The Brave One Movie Box Office: Jodie Foster Thriller Fizzles” last updated in February 2023.