Desert Warrior opened in North American theaters last weekend and took in just $487,848 on a little more than 1,000 screens. That works out to a $483 per-screen average for the Saudi-funded action film starring Anthony Mackie, a start so thin it leaves the movie in danger of becoming one of the biggest box office bombs ever.
The film, directed by Rupert Wyatt, carries a reported production budget of $150 million and has spent several years stuck in post-production hell before finally reaching theaters. It centers on a princess who flees into the Arabian desert as she is hunted by mercenaries, then is forged into a warrior and aided by a legendary bandit played by Mackie. Ben Kingsley, Sharlto Copley and Aiysha Hart also star.
Vertical Entertainment picked up the domestic rights in February, setting the film up for a delayed release after years of uncertainty. Desert Warrior was shot in Saudi Arabia and backed by MBC Group, making it a production that sits far outside the usual Hollywood model even though its cast includes familiar American and British names.
The scale of the opening is what makes the result hard to spin. A film with a $150 million budget that opens to less than half a million dollars in North America is already facing a brutal path to even a fraction of its cost, and the film would be very lucky to clear $3 million domestically. Depending on how the rest of its run unfolds, Desert Warrior could end up in the same conversation as historical flops such as The Adventures of Pluto Nash and The 13th Warrior.
Overseas audiences could still nudge the final total higher, but that would not change the basic picture in North America: Desert Warrior arrived with expensive ambitions and found almost no traction. The opening suggests the long wait ended not with a comeback, but with a collapse that may be remembered for its cost as much as for the film itself.