“A Complete Unknown,” a musical biopic starring Timothée Chalamet as “Like a Rolling Stone” composer Bob Dylan, has cemented a box office milestone, notching $100 million in global ticket sales.
After seven weeks on the big screen, “A Complete Unknown” has grossed $70 million in North America and $30 million internationally for a grand total of $100 million. The R-rated film ranks as Searchlight’s sixth-highest grossing domestic release of all time and is expected to pass “Sideways” ($71.5 million) to crack the top five in the coming weeks.
James Mangold (“Walk the Line”) directed the movie, which reportedly cost between $60 million to $70 million to produce. Since movie theater owners get to keep roughly half of ticket sales, “A Complete Unknown” likely won’t turn a profit in its theatrical run. But still, it’s no small feat these days for specialty fare to crack the $100 million mark.
Searchlight opened “A Complete Unknown” on Christmas Day, where the film opened above expectations with $11.6 million over the traditional weekend and $23.2 million over its first five days. It ranked as the second-largest opening in the studio’s history behind 2009’s “Notorious” ($20.4 million over the traditional weekend). Fueled by older moviegoers, ticket sales for “A Complete Unknown” remained steady in subsequent weeks and enjoyed a boost as the movie scored eight Oscar nominations, including ones for best picture, director for Mangold and actor for Chalamet.
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Set in New York in the early 1960s, the story chronicles the early life and times of Dylan, who arrives in Greenwich Village as an enigmatic 19-year-old and later ignites an upheaval in the folk community when he straps on an electric guitar. “A Complete Unknown,” whose title is taken from “Like a Rolling Stone,” features the sprawling cast of Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, Dan Fogler as Albert Grossman and Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie.