One would be forgiven for not noticing, but Daisy Ridley, of “Star Wars” fame, had a new movie arrive in theaters over the weekend. Indeed, as director Oz Perkins’ Stephen King adaptation “The Monkey” crushed it and Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” once again topped the charts, “Cleaner” arrived with hardly any fanfare. This is even more surprising when we consider the fact that “Casino Royale” director Martin Campbell was at the helm. Yet, it doesn’t make it any less true.
Quiver Distribution’s action flick “Cleaner” debuted on just 378 screens in the U.S., taking in a mere $426,150, making for a not-at-all-great per-screen average of just over $1,100. This one is going to be lucky to hold onto those relatively few screens in the coming weeks, meaning it will be lucky to clear $1 million domestically. That’s … not good.
The film centers on a group of radical activists who take over an energy company’s annual gala, taking 300 hostages in the process. An extremist within their ranks quickly makes themselves known and he’s prepared to murder everyone in the building to send his message to the world. Meanwhile, an ex-soldier turned window cleaner (Ridley) is suspended 50 stories up on the outside of the building, and is unwittingly tasked with saving everyone inside.
To make matters worse, this is just the latest in a string of small movies that have essentially gone nowhere for Ridley. After “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” made $1 billion in 2019, Ridley had the world in front of her. Mixed though the response to the sequel trilogy was, Ridley undoubtedly set herself up as a big star.
Daisy Ridley is on an almost inexplicable cold streak
Unfortunately, everything that has come out since then has been at worst a massive flop like the YA disaster that was “Chaos Walking,” and at best a small, acclaimed movie that virtually nobody saw, like “Sometimes I Think About Dying.” Even something seemingly more commercial, like the thriller “The Marsh King’s Daughter,” flamed out with less than $3 million worldwide. The only post-“Star Wars” hit to Ridley’s name is “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway,” and that was a voiceover job. That’s not her getting meaningful screen time.
It’s all very unfortunate, in no small part because “Cleaner,” on paper and when Ridley talked about it, sounded awesome. For what it’s worth, critics were mixed on the film as it sits at 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, did it deserve a fair shake? More importantly, doesn’t Ridley deserve better?
So how does this happen? How does the actor who headlined the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy as Rey find herself at the end of such a string of misfires? Whether or not Ridley would consider them misfires creatively is another conversation, but commercially, it’s impossible to argue with the results. Is this just Ridley making purely creative choices that aren’t panning out? Is she having a tough time booking better jobs? Is this an issue with her representatives? Right now, we have more questions than answers. One can only hope that this is just a rough streak that will be broken sooner rather than later.
We spoke about this, along with other box office news, on today’s episode of the /Film Daily podcast:
You can subscribe to /Film Daily on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and send your feedback, questions, comments, concerns, and mailbag topics to us at bpearson@slashfilm.com. Please leave your name and general geographic location in case we mention your e-mail on the air.
“Cleaner” is in theaters now.
Leave a Reply