About spy movies at the box office

The 355 we hardly knew ye

Over the past several years, there have attempts to establish new espionage movie characters. The results have been mixed, at best, and bombs at worst.

A few examples at the box office (figures via Box Office Mojo):

Atomic Blonde (2017): $51.7 million (U.S.), $100 million (global)

The Rhythm Section (2020): $5.4 million (U.S.), $6 million (global)

The 355 (2022): $14.6 million (U.S.), $27.8 million (global)

Argylle (2024, opening weekend): $17.5 million (U.S.), $34.3 million (global)

Atomic Blonde had a Cold War-era story with Charlize Theron as an MI6 agent. IMDB.COM has an entry for Atomic Blonde 2 but it has very little information.

The Rhythm Section was an attempt by Eon Productions to venture into the spy realm beyond its long-running James Bond series. The Rhythm Section came out just before the COVID-19 pandemic.

It opened in the U.S. at more than 3,000 screens. It was pulled from 2,955 of them within two weeks. People simply didn’t go. At the showing I attended the first night the film opened, there were eight people present in the theater.

Two years later, the 355, featuring women agents, did better but not a whole lot. Now, in early 2024, director Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle had an anemic opening despite little competition in theaters.

The 355 flops as spy movies struggle to find an audience

The 355 movie poster

The 355, a spy movie with a mostly female cast, flopped over the weekend in its U.S. debut.

The film’s opening U.S. weekend totaled an estimated $4.8 million, according to Exhibitor Relations Co., which tracks box office data. It was the first film of 2022 with a “wide” opening (3,000 screens or more).

The 355 shows it’s hard for spy movies not part of the James Bond or Mission: Impossible films series to get much traction.

At one time (the early 2000s), Jason Bourne was a big success, even prodding Eon Productions to change the tone of its 007 productions and dump Pierce Brosnan in favor of Daniel Craig as Bond. In the mid- to late-2010s, director Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman series, mixing violence and comedy, appeared to be something new.

However, Bourne’s success has been difficult to extend without Matt Damon. In 2016, there was another Bourne entry with Matt Damon (simply titled Jason Bourne). But nothing has happened since then. 2017 saw Atomic Blonde with a global box office of $100 million. However, no sequel resulted. And Matthew Vaughn’s most recent Kingsmen effort, The King’s Man, flopped.

Other spy film attempts have been a mixed bag.

Salt (2010) had a respectable $293.5 million at the global box office but never generated a sequel. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015), (loosely) based on the 1964-68 TV show, had a global box office of $107 million. Hopes for a revived U.N.C.L.E. disappeared.

The Rhythm Section (2020), made by Eon Productions, had a worldwide box office of not quite $6 million. Clearly, the makers of the Bond films weren’t able to duplicate the success of the 007 movies.

We’ll see. Matthew Vaughn has another spy project titled Argylle which will star Henry Cavill (who played Solo in the 2015 U.N.C.L.E. movie).

Hope springs eternal when it comes to spy films.