Sony’s Bullet Train debuted on PVOD earlier this week and has now crossed the $100 million domestic box office mark in its ninth weekend of release. The action film, which was essentially the summer’s final major release, steadily performed throughout the course of the past two months, taking advantage of a relatively calm marketplace. The picture, directed by David Leitch, opened on August 5 and made $30 million at its first weekend. The stated budget for Bullet Train is $90 million, and the film has already grossed over $130 million in international markets. For Brad Pitt’s comeback to the action genre after an extended hiatus, this is decent but by no means spectacular box office take.
Mr. & Mrs Smith, which starred Pitt and Angelina Jolie in 2005, garnered over $480 million at the worldwide box office. The romantic comedy adventure picture The Lost City, in which Pitt had a significant role earlier this year, has done about on pace with Bullet Train. That movie, which starred Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, earned over $100 million in North America and almost $190 million elsewhere. Bullet Train also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Joey King, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Shannon, and Bad Bunny, and they were all kind enough to make cameo appearances for Bullock and Tatum in return. Based on Ktar Isaka’s 2010 novel Maria Beetle, Pitt plays an assassin dubbed Ladybug who must face “lethal opponents from throughout the world” aboard the world’s fastest train in contemporary Japan. Visually stunning yet lacking in narrative excitement. Bullet Train, according to critic Ross Bonaime, “revels in the type of caveman-brain excitement that one gets from an action film like this” despite its “overly labyrinthine narrative.”
This is also Leitch’s lowest-grossing film since the similarly complex (but equally elegant) Atomic Blonde, which made $100 million worldwide on a far lesser budget and went bankrupt. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw and Deadpool 2 were the director’s two most recent films, both of which grossed $760 million and $785 million worldwide. He was, incidentally, once employed as Pitt’s stunt double. On September 27th, Bullet Train was released digitally. Release dates for the 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD versions were all set for October 18.
Synopsis
In Bullet Train, Brad Pitt plays Ladybug, a jaded hitman who, after a string of botched assignments, is ready to quietly go about his business. It seems fate has other ideas, though, for Ladybug’s current job has him riding the world’s fastest train straight into the path of a group of deadly enemies with intertwined but divergent goals from all corners of the globe. With this nonstop thrill journey across contemporary Japan, directed by Deadpool 2’s David Leitch, the finish line is just the beginning.