The Alto Knights has suffered a major hit during its opening weekend. The new mafia movie, which was directed by Rain Man‘s Barry Levinson, stars Robert De Niro in a dual role as Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, two real-life mob bosses based out of New York City. The Alto Knights release kicked off on March 21, the same day as the Disney live-action remake Snow White, which debuted at No. 1 despite a middling projected total of $45.5 million.

Per ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, as of Saturday morning, The Alto Knights is projected to earn a 3-day opening weekend gross of $3 million at the domestic box office, landing outside of the weekend’s Top 5 entirely, at No. 6. Given the fact that the movie has a $50 million production budget, this likely means that it will lose money in theaters, making it Warner Bros. second flop in a row after the Bong Joon Ho sci-fi movie Mickey 17, which cost $118 million and is projected to lose up to $80 million.

What This Means For The Alto Knights

Its Future Seems Dark

The $50 million budget for the Robert De Niro movie is now going to prove to be a huge hurdle. Because theaters keep half of ticket sales and production budgets do not factor in marketing costs, movies typically need to earn back two and a half times their budgets, so it could very well be facing a break-even point of $125 million. It could be slightly less, as Warner Bros. reportedly played it safer with their publicity spend, but given its current trajectory, it seems entirely unlikely to reach $50 million, let alone any higher than that milestone.

It seems highly unlikely that The Alto Knights‘ prospects could turn around in the coming weeks. Although March 2025 has been a quiet period at the box office, the final weekend of the month sees the one-two punch of the Blumhouse horror movie The Woman in the Yard and the Jason Statham action outing A Working Man. As those releases will be followed by A Minecraft Movie, Drop, and The Amateur in quick succession in early April, the mob movie will likely be quickly buried underneath new releases.

Our Take On The Alto Knights’ Box Office

It Could Make Money Elsewhere

The mob movie could connect with audiences better on VOD and on streaming, which could help make up for its underwhelming theatrical performance. However, it remains to be seen how viewers respond to it, as it does not yet have an audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics’ The Alto Knights reviews, though, have earned it a firmly Rotten 39%, so if audiences follow suit, it may never build up enough steam to earn its money back, even with the added boost of its at-home release.

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Source: ᴅᴇᴀᴅline