8 Movies Opening Night Crowds Graded the Harshest

CinemaScore polls crowds on opening night, before the internet tells them what to think. Sometimes they nail it. Sometimes they grade a masterpiece like a parking ticket.

Number one got a D minus from crowds who expected a totally different movie.

1. 8
   A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)5.7

   A C+? The crowd was wrong. Spielberg at his most haunting.

   Haley Joel Osment plays a robot boy built to love, and he never once blinks. Kubrick started it, Spielberg finished it, and $235.9 million worldwide says people went anyway.
2. 7
   Sinister (2012)4.9

   C+ is a little harsh. Those home movies rattle people.

   Ethan Hawke's true crime writer moves his family into a house with a box of old film reels in the attic. Bad call. $82.5 million worldwide on a $3 million budget.
3. 6
   Hannibal (2001)4.4

   The crowd's C+ was right. Hopkins can't save this one.

   Ridley Scott sends Hannibal Lecter to Florence and trades tension for gross-out shock. Julianne Moore does her best. Critics rank it above 35% of notable movies, yet it made $351.7 million worldwide.
4. 5
   Magnolia (1999)7.3

   Wrong grade, fair complaint: it runs 188 minutes.

   Paul Thomas Anderson braids a pile of lonely lives across one Los Angeles day, and Tom Cruise plays a seminar guru like a lit fuse. A C minus? IMDb says 8.0.
5. 4
   Other Mommy (2026)2.0

   D plus, and fair. Even critics agreed for once.

   Jessica Chastain deserved better. Critics rank it above 12% of notable movies, audiences just 5%, yet it still made $54.4 million worldwide on an $18 to $19 million budget.
6. 3
   Hereditary (2018)7.3

   Too intense for opening night, too good for a D plus.

   Ari Aster's debut is a family falling apart with something worse underneath. Alex Wolff is the underrated performance here. $90.4 million worldwide on a $10 million budget says word of mouth disagreed.
7. 2
   American Psycho (2000)6.1

   A D is too harsh. It's a satire, not a slasher.

   Opening crowds expected a slasher and got Christian Bale comparing business cards. Critics and audiences both rank it above 54% of notable movies. That's a C, not a D.
8. 1
   Eyes Wide Shut (1999)6.7

   A D minus? Way too harsh, even if it drags.

   Stanley Kubrick's final film sends Tom Cruise wandering New York for one long, strange night. 159 minutes, but critics rank it above 73% of notable movies, and it made $162.5 million worldwide.

$9,983 says you give one of these a second chance this week and grade it higher than opening night did.

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Current mood: ready to fight about it