The Weeknd’s ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ Struggles

The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow, a psychological thriller co-starring Jenna Ortega, bombed at the box office in its opening weekend.

The Weeknd’s first feature film, Hurry Up Tomorrow, didn’t get off to the best start during its opening weekend. The R-rated film co-stars Jenna Ortega and features The Weeknd, who goes by his real name, Abel Tesfaye, in the credits. It’s his first major acting role since the controversial HBO Max series, The Idol, with Lily-Rose Depp.

Tesfaye plays a fictionalized version of himself, also named Abel, while Ortega plays a stranger named Anima. The film is directed by Trey Edward Shults, based on a screenplay by Reza Fahim, Shults, and Tesfaye. The logline for the film reads, “A musician plagued by insomnia is pulled into an odyssey with a stranger who begins to unravel the very core of his existence.”

Hurry Up Tomorrow opened in 2,020 theaters across North America on Friday. That evening, it was projected to see a mere $3.3 million to $4.7 million in its opening weekend. According to Lionsgate in an email on Saturday, the film was looking at an opening weekend pull of $3 million to $3.6 million, which still “makes it profitable for the studio.” On Sunday, Lionsgate projected the film would earn $3.3 million by the end of the week.

Notably, Lionsgate is only distributing the film and is not responsible for its production cost, which was around $15 million.

The film is part of a three-pronged project from The Weeknd, alongside the artist’s new album and tour. “Hurry Up Tomorrow was conceived as part of The Weeknd’s broader creative ecosystem, anchored by the artist’s new album and tour, with creative alignment across music, film, and live performance,” said Lionsgate. Its release fell on the same day that The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn Tour kicked off in Glendale, Arizona.

One factor undeniably hurting the film’s box office numbers is a series of negative reviews from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. As of Saturday, the film had a 14% “rotten” rating, based on 52 reviews. Among those, viewers have called the film an “ego-stroke of monumental hubris,” “vapid,” and “meandering.” One reviewer wrote that the film will easily secure the position for the year’s worst movie.

According to The Weeknd, the film unsurprisingly means something personal to him. “I look in the mirror and feel both old and new, stuck in limbo and unable to move,” he wrote earlier this year. “I still haven’t faced myself.”