‘Argylle’ Misfires With $18 Million Opening as Box Office Stays in Slump

Universal/Apple’s “Argylle” got off to a sluggish start at the box office with an $18 million domestic and $35.3 million global opening weekend, amidst negative critical and audience reception.

That $18 million launch in North America is consistent with pre-release tracking, but is half of the opening of director Matthew Vaughn’s 2017 film “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” and only slightly above the $16.5 million opening of Amazon MGM’s Jason Statham action thriller “The Beekeeper” last month.

For Universal, this result is one they can easily shrug off, given that they are simply distributors on this film. But it’s not a good sign for Apple, which spent an estimated $200 million on production and reached a distribution deal with Universal for the project as part of its plan to spend big on auteur-driven films that can raise the profile of Apple TV+ among both audiences and prospective filmmakers.