South Korean director Bong Joon Ho is used to having his movies — which include “Snowpiercer” and the best picture winner “Parasite” — called things like “peerless,” “audacious,” and “original.” He’s not so used to having his movies called “flops” or “box office bombs.” Unfortunately, that’s what his Robert Pattinson-led film “Mickey 17” was — in fact, it’s one of the biggest box office bombs of 2025.
This political sci-fi satire with weighty things on its mind (including identity, class warfare, environmental degradation, and corporate greed) disappointed when it hit theaters, ending its theatrical run with $133.3 million at the box office, with only $46 million of that coming from North America. Though that would be a respectable number for some films, according to Variety, “Mickey 17” was produced for approximately $118 million and reportedly cost another $80 million to market. To break even, the film would have had to gross approximately $300 million, so in the end, it lost $75 to $80 million.
While reviews were mostly positive, many critics had reservations, noting that “Mickey 17” isn’t the best of Bong Joon Ho and pointing to the film’s lengthy runtime and the over-the-top performances as drawbacks. However, when “Mickey 17” hit HBO Max a few months after its theatrical release, viewers immediately took to the daring space adventure: It shot up the viewing charts and stayed among HBO Max’s top 10 films for weeks, becoming the latest box office failure to find a second life in the streaming world.
Why did Mickey 17 bomb at the box office?
Looper’s review of “Mickey 17” gave it a 6/10 score and the film has a respectable 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Acclaim wasn’t universal, but the response from critics wasn’t exactly a death blow for the project. Also, the cast includes several notable actors, including Steven Yeun as Timo, Mickey’s friend from Earth and a pilot; Naomi Ackie as Nasha, a security agent and Mickey’s love interest, no matter what version of him is currently printed; Mark Ruffalo as Kenneth Marshall, a failed politician who is in charge of the space colony; and Toni Collette as Ylfa Marshall, Kenneth’s controlling wife. So what happened?
There are a few reasons that “Mickey 17” flopped at the box office, the first being that the story is nothing like your typical Hollywood blockbuster. “Mickey 17” takes place in 2054 and is about a man named Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson). Mickey agrees to become an “expendable,” someone who’s cloned so he can be used to do the worst jobs imaginable, many of which require his death. But when, unbeknownst to his superiors on the ice planet he works on, one version of Mickey unexpectedly survives his mission, he finds he must confront a newly-printed version of himself.
The main reason that “Mickey 17” bombed is that it cost too much money to make. Warner Bros. pumped cash into the project on the strength of Bong Joon Ho and Robert Pattinson’s names, which do carry some weight. However, it was always going to be tough for a non-franchise film to pull in the kind of money that would have made “Mickey 17” a success. It’s getting the love it deserves on streaming, and it’s not alone — “Companion” is another 2025 sci-fi film that’s become a must-watch on HBO Max.