Anne Hathaway’s Controversial New Movie Just Delivered The Strangest Opening Weekend Of The Year

Alright, so there’s a new Anne Hathaway movie out called Mother Mary, and its opening weekend has been... well, weird. Even by the usual “artsy indie release” standards, this one’s a little out there. Let’s break down what’s actually going on, because it’s not as simple as 'movie bombed.' Not even close.

Five Theaters, Seven Songs, and Some Drama

Here’s the setup: Mother Mary is an A24 film directed by David Lowery. If you know his work, you know you’re not getting your average formula drama. This movie stars Hathaway as a pop idol—yes, she sings (the soundtrack has seven original songs with her on vocals)—and has low-key strong reviews from most critics.

It dropped on April 17, but not in your local cineplex. We're talking just five theaters. That’s as ‘limited release’ as it gets.

The Box Office: It’s Awkward, But Not a Disaster

If you only look at the headline number—about $168,000 in ticket sales for its opening weekend—you’ll probably roll your eyes. But when you remember that’s over just five screens, it actually means the per-theater average is really high this year. Not a bomb, just a weird release strategy.

As Variety's Brent Lang put it:

'It did very well in limited release. It made about $170,000, which doesn’t sound like a huge number, but that’s from just five locations. So that’s one of the larger per screen averages of the year. The question is, will this movie work as it expands? I’m not positive.'

The plan is to go wide on April 24, but the 'official' opener will always be that $168K number. For comparison, early forecasts think it’ll pull in $2-4 million total for the US and Canada after expansion. Strangely, the analytics site BoxOfficeTheory hasn’t even bothered to add it to their charts—maybe the weird rollout just confused their system?

Anne Hathaway’s Overscheduled, and the Timing is… Odd

Here’s where things start to make less sense: Hathaway is in five movies this year. The big one people are watching for is The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is coming out in just a couple of weeks. Plus, she’s starring in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, the sci-fi thing The End of Oak Street, and the buzzy thriller Verity (yes, she’s already showing up in early 2027 Oscars talk for Best Supporting Actress for that one).

So, Mother Mary isn’t just competing with other movies out there—it’s competing with Hathaway herself. Depending who you ask, her focus is on bigger projects (and who can blame her?), so whatever promotion this one gets will probably stay pretty chill. To borrow a quote:

‘Anne Hathaway is also really shrewd at how she does press. She doesn’t oversaturate the market. She picks her spots.’

Critics Dig It, But Audiences? Not So Much (Plus a Side of Controversy)

• Rotten Tomatoes critics score: 73% as of April 21—solid, but not all-timer territory.
• IMDb users: Gave it a 3.6 out of 10 on April 16, dragging the film for apparently offensive takes on the Virgin Mary and (just to make it stranger) for allegedly ripping off the real band MOTHERMARY.
• Lawsuit drama: MOTHERMARY, the band, actually filmed themselves debating whether to sue the production over the similarities. That’s on Instagram if you want to see it.
• IMDb user reviews vanished: At some point recently, all user reviews disappeared from IMDb. Could be a glitch, could be the studio trying to tamp down review-bombing, but it’s definitely not normal.

Bottom Line

This is one of those releases where the numbers on paper don’t tell the full story. Mother Mary actually did really well for five theaters, but it might end up as a footnote between Hathaway’s bigger 2026 projects and all the random controversy. Still, if you’re into artsy horror-dramas, a little pop star melodrama, and movies that have the internet fighting over them, probably worth keeping on your radar. Just maybe not for the box office stats.