Hurry Up Tomorrow — a psychological thriller starring The Weeknd and Jenna Ortega— is off to a rough start in its opening frame at the domestic box office.
Rated R, Hurry Up Tomorrow marks the feature film acting debut of The Weeknd, who goes by his real name, Abel Tesfaye, in the credits. Tesfaye previously starred in the controversial Max series The Idol opposite Lily-Rose Depp.
The logline for Hurry Up Tomorrow reads, “A musician plagued by insomnia is pulled into an odyssey with a stranger who begins to unravel the very core of his existence.”
Tesfaye plays Abel — a fictionalized version of himself — in Hurry Up Tomorrow, while Ortega plays the stranger, Anima. Saltburn star Barry Keoghan also stars in the film as Lee. The film is directed by Trey Edward Shults from a screenplay by Reza Fahim, Shults and Tesfaye.
Hurry Up Tomorrow opened in 2,020 North American theaters on Friday. On Friday evening, Deadline projected a weak $3.3 million to $4.7 million opening weekend for the film.
In an email Saturday, Lionsgate reported that Hurry Up Tomorrow is looking at an opening weekend tally of $3 million to $3.6 million, “which makes it profitable for the studio.”
Deadline noted, however, that Lionsgate is just distributing the film and is not responsible for the film’s production cost, which is $15 million before prints and advertising costs.
The Hurry Up Tomorrow feature film is part of a three-pronged project from The Weeknd, Lionsgate said in the email.
“Hurry Up Tomorrow was conceived as part of The Weeknd’s broader creative ecosystem, anchored by the artist’s new album and tour, with creative alignment across music, film, and live performance,” Lionsgate noted.
The release of Hurry Up Tomorrow came the same day The Weeknd kicked off his After Hours Til Dawn Tour in Glendale, Ariz.
Rotten Tomatoes Critics Are Splattering ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ With Bad Reviews
Perhaps one factor hampering Hurry Up Tomorrow’s box office aspirations is a smattering of negative reviews from Rotten Tomatoes critics.
As of Saturday morning, the film has a 14% “rotten” rating based on 52 reviews.
Among the most damning reviews from top critics on RT comes from Nick Schager, who writes in his “rotten” take on Hurry Up Tomorrow in The Daily Beast that the film is “A feature-length ego-stroke of monumental hubris that instantly assumes pole position in the race for year’s worst movie.”
In addition, Clint Worthington of RogerEbert.com writes of Hurry Up Tomorrow on RT, “It’s vapid, meandering, and insistent on its own profundity as a tale of an artist reckoning with fame.”
Alexander Mooney of the Toronto Star also gives the film a “rotten” review on RT, writing “Hurry Up Tomorrow is remarkable in its ceaseless and shameless capacity for failure, constantly finding new and innovative ways to fall flat on its face.”
On the upside, Hurry Up Tomorrow currently has a 72% percent “fresh” Popcornmeter score based on 250-plus verified user ratings.
Hurry Up Tomorrow is playing in theaters nationwide.