Eden is having a difficult time finding its audience in theaters. The new survival thriller, which was helmed by Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, is based on the true story of a group of European settlers attempting to make a home on a remote island in the Galápagos during the years between World War I and World War II.

2025’s Eden features a star-studded cast that includes Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney, Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, and Daniel Brühl. However, after it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024, it struggled to find a distributor for months. Eventually, it was picked up by Vertical and slated to premiere on August 22.

Per ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, as of Saturday morning, Eden is projected to earn a 3-day total of $1.36 million at the domestic box office by the end of its opening weekend. This represents just a small fraction of its budget. In fact, it has made back less than 3% of its reported $50 million price tag.

What This Means For Eden

Ultimately, the exact break-even point for Eden is unknown. It seems unlikely that Vertical paid very much for the rights to distribute the movie in theaters, because one major reason for the movie’s long search for a distributor is the fact that its hefty budget was seen as a risk.

In fact, Ron Howard was quite aware of this factor when he decided to take on the project. He recently told Forbes that he “knew from a commercial standpoint it was going to be risky.” Read Howard’s full quote below:

We made it very efficiently and at a price point that I think was very responsible because I knew it wasn’t a studio kind of movie. I never thought it would be. In fact, it took me years to commit to making the movie because I always knew it was going to push me outside my comfort zone.

I also knew that from a commercial standpoint it was going to be risky and would need to be done in a very particular way. I found that when we had the script and I had this great cast, I felt like, “Let’s just do it as an indie.”

It is possible that Eden, in being treated as an indie release, is being put out in theaters as a way to increase its name recognition before a streaming run, during which it may be expected to do better numbers. Its advertising budget may have also been limited to avoid increasing the risk further.

However, this box office total is still somewhat surprising, considering the fact that it is a new movie by a name-brand director that features an ensemble packed with notable stars. However, it may have been damaged by its mediocre Rotten Tomatoes score. Eden reviews have earned the movie a splat, with just 55% on the Tomatometer.

Our Take On Eden’s Box Office Debut

The underwhelming debut of Eden comes just one week after Sydney Sweeney’s crime drama Americana debuted in 1,100 theaters with just $500,000. While the Ron Howard movie’s ultimate fortunes are unknown, this cements the fact that even huge stars can fail to draw audiences to theaters on a consistent basis in the modern age.

This does not necessarily mean that Eden is a flop, because theatrical is only one part of its revenue stream. However, it underscores the shaky nature of theatrical moviegoing in the 2020s, when it can be hard to find ways to capture the attention of audiences, even on relatively quiet weekends like its late August debut.

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