Three Thousand Years of Longing set to be 2022’s biggest box office flop

Three Thousand Years of Longing, the new movie from Fury Road’s George Miller, is poised to be the biggest box office flop of 2022.

This year has been full of box office success stories: Spider-Man: No Way Home continued its record-breaking streak into January; The Batman grossed more than $770 million; Jurassic World Dominion and Doctor Strange 2 made just shy of $1 billion; and Top Gun: Maverick is the highest-grossing movie by quite some margin.

After years of global restrictions and shuttered cinemas, even the quieter months have silver linings. For example, The Invitation was number one in the year’s slowest weekend, and it still pulled in $7 million.

Alas, for all of 2022’s successes, there has to be a flop – and Three Thousand Years of Longing appears to have fallen on the sword.

Three Thousand Years of Longing set to be a huge box office flop

Three Thousand Years of Longing arrived in the US over the weekend, but grossed just $2.88 million from 2,436 theaters, coming in at seventh place, as per Box Office Mojo.

Three things to bear in mind: firstly, it’s Miller’s first film since Mad Max: Fury Road, which was a major critical and financial success; it’s led by Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, two somewhat bankable stars; and most of all, Three Thousand Years of Longing has a budget of $60 million, so opening with less than $3 million in the US is a pretty harrowing forecast.

The official synopsis for the film reads: “Dr. Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) is an academic… a creature of reason. While in Istanbul, she happens to encounter a Djinn (Idris Elba) who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom.

“At first, she doubts that he is real and she knows all the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong. But the Djinn pleads his case, and eventually, she is beguiled and makes a wish that surprises them both!”

The Invitation tops box office… and Top Gun Maverick remains

The Invitation raked in $7 million, claiming the domestic box office top spot. Bullet Train came in at second place, bringing its worldwide haul to $173 million. Beast, another Idris Elba film, sat in third place, taking its total haul to just over $36 million.

Then, rather extraordinarily, Top Gun: Maverick took the fourth place spot, despite it arriving on digital. Its worldwide haul now stands at a whopping $1.422 billion. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero came in at fifth place, grossing $68 million.

Three Thousand Years of Longing will be released in UK cinemas on September 2.