Don’t Worry Darling finished atop the domestic box office in its opening weekend, Deadline reports.
The Olivia Wilde-directed film earned $19.2 million, a shade higher than expectations, which sat around $17 million. It’s also a respectable opening sum for a feature with a production cost of $35 million. Of course, it’s impossible to discuss the box office performance of Don’t Worry Darling without considering the impact from all the drama leading up to its release.
Shia LaBeouf’s exit from the cast in 2020 has become a point of contention with the actor refuting Wilde’s claim that he was fired.
LaBeouf alleges he “quit the film due to lack of rehearsal time,” releasing the infamous video where Wilde allegedly tells Shia that whatever was playing out behind-the-scenes “might be a bit of a wake-up call for Miss Flo,” in reference to Florence Pugh.
LaBeouf’s departure paved the way for Harry Styles to assume the role of Jack Chambers, husband of Pugh’s character Alice. Aside from being her leading man in Darling, Styles also became Wilde’s leading man in real life. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Wilde dismissed speculation that there was any infidelity on her part in regards to her relationship with Jason Sudekis, saying, “The complete horseshit idea that I left Jason for Harry is completely inaccurate,” while adding, “Our relationship was over long before I met Harry.”
Styles got swept up in the controversy surrounding the film when a video of him allegedly spitting on co-star Chris Pine surfaced online. Wilde dismissed the incident in a Late Show appearance.
“But I think it’s a perfect example of, like, people will look for drama anywhere they can,” she said. “Harry did not spit on Chris, in fact. … That is exactly what I mean though. People can look at a video that shows evidence of someone not spitting on someone else and they’ll still see what they wanna see. And that is the creation of drama and that is clickbait.”
Styles joked about “Spitgate” during one of his shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Meanwhile, Vulture reported a few days ago that Pugh and Wilde got into a public “screaming match” while on set, leading to an intervention from studio executives who engaged in a “long negotiation process” which resulted in the actress having minimal requirements when to came to promoting the film.