It’s not “good” news that Ari Aster’s “Beau is Afraid” stands to lose a lot of money. I’ve been pulling for this risk-taking film to break even, but odds are that it definitely won’t be making its money back.
Remember when Aster said, a week or so ago, that he couldn’t believe how “stupid” A24 were in greenlighting his $35 million passion project? He wasn’t kidding. This might be the biggest bomb in the indie studio’s history.
Aster got his existential and plotless 3-hour mommy issues movie made and good on him for managing to do that. It’s a damn-near miracle he pulled it off. But ‘Beau’ opened wide this weekend, in almost 1000 theaters, and stands to only make $3 million.
It doesn’t help that reviews were mixed on the film. Many critics admired the effort more than liked it. I was one of them. The first two hours are quite good, but did it really have to be 3 hours? Of course not.