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Plenty of moviegoers had a seat for “Primetime,” a true-crime thriller starring Robert Pattinson as Dateline NBC journalist and “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen.
The A24 movie landed on the higher end of box office
expectations, scoring $19.2 million from 2,863 North American venues in its opening weekend. Although “Primetime” ranked in fourth place on domestic charts — behind Disney’s “Avengers: Endgame Encore” ($26 million), Sony’s “Resident Evil” reboot ($23 million) and fellow newcomer, Paramount’s wilderness adventure “The Heart of the Beast” ($20 million) — it cost just $15 million to produce and is already well-positioned to turn a profit theatrically.
Notably, “Primetime” marks the third-best opening weekend ever for A24, behind this summer’s sleeper hit “Backrooms” ($81.4 million) and Alex Garland’s 2024 dystopian “Civil War” ($25.5 million) and, impressively, above Josh Safdie and Timothée Chalamet’s 2025 ping-pong drama “Marty Supreme” ($15.7 million). This is Pattinson’s second consecutive hit with A24 following this spring’s dark relationship dramedy “The Drama,” which co-starred Zendaya and opened to $14.3 million domestically.
Directed by Lance Oppenheim, “Primetime” revolves around the production of “To Catch a Predator” and Hansen’s increasingly frenetic attempts to confront child sexual predators in complex sting operations. Critics embraced the movie, which holds an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Moviegoers gave “Primetime” a mixed “B” grade on CinemaScore exit polls, which isn’t all that surprising given the film’s intentionally unsettling nature.
“Considering the tough subject material, the audience score is good,” says David A. Gross, who publishes the box office newsletter FranchiseRe. “This is a hit.”
Here are five reasons “Primetime” was, well, ready for primetime at the box office.
Robert Pattinson’s Star Power
It’s been a big year for Pattinson, the “Twilight” heartthrob-turned-bona-fide movie star. In 2026, he’s been in “The Drama,” Christopher Nolan’s summer smash “The Odyssey” and will appear in the upcoming sci-fi sequel “Dune: Part III.” While he shares the credit with Zendaya and Nolan for those wins, Pattinson is undeniably the draw in “Primetime.” More than 75% of audiences cited Pattinson as their No. 1 reason for buying a ticket, according to exit polls from PostTrak. What’s more impressive is Pattinson managed to get people to theaters without too splashy a press tour. (In addition to starring in just about every movie this year, he’s been busy filming “The Batman: Part II” in London.) He didn’t scale the Sphere in Las Vegas or advertise on blimps to get out the word about “Primetime.” Pattinson showed up at Venice Film Festival, where “Primetime” bowed to raves, and participated in some phone interviews. But otherwise, he let the movie do the talking.
Gen Z, Assemble!
Opening weekend crowds for “Primetime” skewed heavily Gen Z, with 69% of audiences under the age of 30. That’s especially significant because most Zoomers were way too young to watch “To Catch a Predator” when the show aired from 2004-2007. It helped that “Primetime” tapped into their love for the true-crime genre. This also highlights the audience that A24 has cultivated over the years, thanks to edgy, aesthetic and conversation-starting arthouse favorites like “Marty Supreme,” “Lady Bird,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and more. “Primetime” is the indie studio’s second release of the year to become a full-fledged event for younger moviegoers. The first was “Backrooms,” which became a wildly profitable breakout sensation with $400 million against a $10 million budget. It’s all a huge relief to theater owners, who worried that younger generations viewed the big screen as outdated.
Pattinson, meanwhile, might credit the win to Gen Z supporting their own. Pattinson has joked that he’s Gen Z (despite being 40, which makes him squarely a Millennial). During Vanity Fair’s Lie Detector test, his “Die My Love” co-star Jennifer Lawrence hilariously accused Pattinson of thinking he’s Gen Z because he likes to cold-call people on FaceTime. He claimed his birth year “doesn’t matter,” to which she replied, “I believe that you believe you’re Gen Z.”
Chris Hansen’s Marketing Blitz
A24 ran an effective social media-heavy campaign for “Primetime.” But whether he intended to or not, the real-life Hansen also stoked a ton of interest by continuously speaking out against the movie. Way before he got to see the film, Hansen was vocal in his criticism about Pattinson’s “overly dramatic” portrayal of him. He also stressed that “Primetime” isn’t a literal account of his career and questioned the studio’s “motive” in dramatizing the making of the hit reality series. When Hansen finally watched “Primetime,” he wasn’t all that enthused. He called the film “so bizarre” and “detached from reality.” In the process, he made plenty of headlines and put “Primetime” on the radar of “To Catch a Predator” fans across the country.
Venice Fanfare
The Venice Film Festival can be hit or miss in terms of launching a movie into the mainstream. For every critical and commercial success like “A Star Is Born,” “The Shape of Water” and “La La Land,” there’s a high-profile misfire à la “Joker: Folie à Deux” or “After the Hunt.” Venice worked as the kickoff for “Primetime,” which was embraced with an enthusiastic seven-minute standing ovation. Since there weren’t many Hollywood-backed movies at the glamorous Italian festival, “Primetime” became the talk of Lido — leading to weeks of positive world-of-mouth before general audiences saw the film. That’s amore!
A Director to Watch
Oppenheim, the 30-year-old filmmaker known for documentaries like “Some Kind of Heaven” and HBO’s “Ren Faire,” was already emerging as a major emerging talent after “Primetime,” his narrative feature debut. And then, just days after “Primetime” launched at Venice, Oppenheim reached a new level of fame after he and comedian Nathan Fielder unveiled their top-secret documentary “You Can See Everything,” about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, atTelluride Film Festival. Seemingly overnight, Oppenheim found himself on everyone’s radar, which brought even more eyes to this project. Call it the Elizabeth Holmes bump?
