‘The 355’ set to go down as 2022’s first box office bomb

The success of Spider-Man: No Way Home has proven to be an anomaly, with the latest chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe crossing $1.4 billion at the box office, coming close to doubling the previous high for a Hollywood blockbuster during the pandemic era, which was set by No Time to Die at $774 million.

The theatrical industry is still a long way away from recapturing its former glories, and while No Way Home should be lauded at every turn for bringing in those dollars, plenty of other titles are nowhere near as fortunate. A case in point is The 355, which faces the unfortunate distinction of going down in the history books as 2022’s first bomb.

Even the combined might of Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Fan Bingbing, Sebastian Stan, Edgar Ramirez, and more weren’t enough to draw in audiences, even though a relatively paltry Rotten Tomatoes score of just 27% wouldn’t have helped, either.

As a result, the most recent estimates have The 355 failing to even reach $5 million in its opening weekend, which is pretty dire even by current standards. Chastain’s reinvention as an action hero has so far yielded two duds in a row after 2020’s Ava sank without a trace, even though she’s been singled out for praise on both occasions.