Plenty of moviegoers had a seat for “Primetime,” a true-crime thriller starring Robert Pattinson as Dateline NBC journalist and “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen. The A24 movie landed on the higher end of box office expectations, scoring $19.2 million from 2,863 North American venues in its opening weekend. Although “Primetime” ranked in fourth place on domestic charts — behind Disney’s “Avengers: Endgame Encore” ($26 million), Sony’s “Resident Evil” reboot ($23 million) and fellow newcomer, Paramount’s wilderness adventure “The Heart of the Beast” ($20 million) — it cost just $15 million to produce and is already well-positioned to turn a profit theatrically.
Notably, “Primetime” marks the third-best opening weekend ever for A24, behind this summer’s sleeper hit “Backrooms” ($81.4 million) and Alex Garland’s 2024 dystopian “Civil War” ($25.5 million) and, impressively, above Josh Safdie and Timothée Chalamet’s 2025 ping-pong drama “Marty Supreme” ($15.7 million). This is Pattinson’s second consecutive hit with A24 following this spring’s dark relationship dramedy “The Drama,” which co-starred Zendaya and opened to $14.3 million domestically. Directed by Lance Oppenheim, “Primetime” revolves around the production of “To Catch a Predator” and Hansen’s increasingly frenetic attempts to confront child sexual predators in complex sting operations.
Critics embraced the movie, which holds an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Moviegoers gave “Primetime” a mixed “B” grade on CinemaScore exit polls, which isn’t all that surprising given the film’s intentionally unsettling nature. Gross, who publishes the box office newsletter FranchiseRe.
It’s been a big year for Pattinson, the “Twilight” heartthrob-turned-bona-fide movie star. In 2026, he’s been in “The Drama,” Christopher Nolan’s summer smash “The Odyssey” and will appear in the upcoming sci-fi sequel “Dune: Part III.” While he shares the credit with Zendaya and Nolan for those wins, Pattinson is undeniably the draw in “Primetime.” More than 75% of audiences cited Pattinson as their No. 1 reason for buying a ticket, according to exit polls from PostTrak. What’s more impressive is Pattinson managed to get people to theaters without too splashy a press tour. (In addition to starring in just about every movie this year, he’s been busy filming “The Batman: Part II” in London.) He didn’t scale the Sphere in Las Vegas or advertise on blimps to get out the word about “Primetime.” Pattinson showed up at Venice Film Festival, where “Primetime” bowed to raves, and participated in some phone interviews.
But otherwise, he let the movie do the talking. Opening weekend crowds for “Primetime” skewed heavily Gen Z, with 69% of audiences under the age of 30. That’s especially significant because most Zoomers were way too young to watch “To Catch a Predator” when the show aired from 2004-2007.
It helped that “Primetime” tapped into their love for the true-crime genre. This also highlights the audience that A24 has cultivated over the years, thanks to edgy, aesthetic and conversation-starting arthouse favorites like “Marty Supreme,” “Lady Bird,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and more. The first was “Backrooms,” which became a wildly profitable breakout sensation with $400 million against a $10 million budget.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
