After a terrible performance at the box office, director Luca Guadagnino‘s controversial new film, After the Hunt, debuted on Prime Video this past week, almost as if it were a direct-to-streaming title. The psychological drama immediately took the top spot on the streamer’s viewership charts, despite having earned rather poor reviews. After the Hunt traces the fallout of a grave accusation made by a college student against her professor, and investigates ideas of privilege and pretense in the contemporary world. It’s Guadagnino’s third film in two years, following the crowd-pleasing Challengers, and the rather alienating Queer. After the Hunt falls somewhere in between those films; it’s stacked with an all-star cast, but not interested in leaving viewers with easy answers.
According to FlixPatrol, it was the number one movie on the Prime Video charts both domestically and worldwide following its debut on the service on Friday. It knocked the holdover hit Playdate, starring Alan Ritchson and Kevin James, down to the number two spot, while also pushing older titles such as Play Dirty and Red One further down the charts. The movie features Julia Roberts as the senior Yale professor who is made to decide who, between her protégé and her work husband, is telling the truth. Ayo Edebiri plays the young woman making the accusation, while Andrew Garfield stars as the seemingly amiable young professor accused of committing a terrible act. After the Hunt didn’t exactly excite critics, despite its provocative themes.
‘After the Hunt’ Flopped at the Box Office
It now holds a 37% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “After the Hunt doesn’t lack for fine performances, especially from a standout Julia Roberts, but its coy followthrough on incendiary themes makes for an uncharacteristically toothless provocation from director Luca Guadagnino.” In his review, Collider’s Nate Richard wrote that the movie “features terrific performances from Roberts and Garfield, but even they are not enough to save the film from being too muddled and morally ambiguous for its own good.” After the Hunt was given a proper release by Amazon, but it generated under $10 million at the box office against a budget that has been reported to be as high as $80 million. Also featuring a typically outstanding performance by Michael Stuhlbarg, the movie is now available to watch at home. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
