The Box Office Bomb After The Hunt Is Worth Watching On Amazon Prime Video

The term “box office bomb” strikes fear into every movie studio. While it usually means a film has failed, it’s important to consider the details. A big-budget Hollywood film costing $200 million and playing in thousands of theaters has different expectations than a small independent movie costing $5 million shown in limited release. A film doesn’t have to be a financial failure to be good, and a huge success doesn’t automatically mean everyone will enjoy it.

Despite a stellar cast including Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, and Andrew Garfield, Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt is shaping up to be a major letdown. The $80 million drama failed to earn back its production costs in theaters, but it might find an audience on Amazon Prime Video. Is it worth your time to watch?

How Big Of A Box Office Bomb Was After The Hunt?

Pretty Big

When people think of movies that failed at the box office, they often picture large-scale, action-packed films that generated a lot of hype but quickly disappeared from theaters. Movies like 47 Ronin, John Connor, Black Adam, Ben-Hur, Cowboys & Aliens, Fantastic Four, The Flash, the American version of Ghost in the Shell, Snow White (2025), Speed Racer, and Tomorrowland are well-known examples, even though most of them aren’t terrible to watch. Aside from truly awful films like Gigli, the most famous flops are usually expensive Hollywood movies that needed to earn a huge amount of money just to cover their costs.

Smaller releases like After the Hunt usually don’t get much attention, but this film was different. It featured Hollywood actors and a surprisingly large budget – around $80 million – which is more typical of big action movies. It even played in over 1000 theaters for almost two weeks. While no one expected After the Hunt to earn $100 million, its high production cost meant it needed to make around $150 million to be considered a success. Unfortunately, according to Box Office Mojo, the film only earned a little over $10 million worldwide, and less than $3.5 million in the US and Canada.

The film After the Hunt earned around $680,000 on its opening day, October 17, 2025, as it launched nationwide. While it reached number 7 in box office rankings, this was its highest position. By October 30th, the movie had largely disappeared from theaters.

Generally, a movie needs to earn twice its production cost to become profitable, because the publicized budget usually doesn’t include marketing expenses.

That’s A Shame, But Did After The Hunt Do Well With Critics? Surely, The Few People Who Saw It Must Have Loved It…

Well, About That…

As mentioned before, how much money a movie makes at the box office shows how popular it is, not necessarily how good it is. Movies with specific or unusual stories, like After the Hunt, naturally appeal to a smaller audience compared to widely appealing films such as Zootopia 2 or Wicked: For Good. These kinds of films usually depend on people recommending them to others – especially online – to build interest. Sadly, After the Hunt received mixed reviews, which probably discouraged potential viewers from seeing it in theaters.

After the Hunt has 37% on RottenTomatoes and 5.9 on IMDb. So, not universally loved.

The acting received almost unanimous praise, and the script was highly regarded on The Black List before being chosen for production. However, the film’s approach to its difficult themes drew criticism, largely because it appeared hesitant to fully explore them.

Yet, You Should Still Watch After The Hunt If You Have Amazon Prime Video

A Great Showcase For Its Entire Cast, But Especially Julia Roberts

While not every critic loved it, After the Hunt is still a good choice if you’re looking for a character-driven thriller. If you’re a fan of director Luca Guadagnino’s other films – like Call Me By Your Name, A Bigger Splash, or Challengers – you should check it out now that it’s available on Prime Video. It might not be quite as strong as those movies, but it still has his distinctive style.

What really grabbed me about After the Hunt is how Julia Roberts completely transforms. She’s usually known for playing these charming, lovable characters, but this role is something totally different – a complex professor dealing with immense pain. The supporting cast is fantastic, truly giving it their all, but Roberts is the heart of the film, carrying it through every stage of grief with a raw, emotional performance. It’s no surprise she and director Luca Guadagnino were honored with the “Visionary Tribute” at the Gotham Independent Film Awards – it’s a truly captivating performance.

Ayo Edebiri, known for her work on The Bear, delivers a standout performance in After the Hunt, which is likely her most prominent live-action film yet. Andrew Garfield and Michael Stuhlbarg are, as expected, excellent, and Garfield particularly takes on an unexpected role.

What Is After The Hunt About?

I just finished watching After the Hunt, and it’s a really tough film. It centers around Alma, played by Julia Roberts, a professor at Yale who finds herself in a really difficult position when a student, brilliantly portrayed by Ayo Edebiri, tells her she was sexually assaulted by another professor – Andrew Garfield. What makes it so compelling, and frankly unsettling, is that Alma is torn. She’s dealing with her own history, worried about her career, and she’s also friends with the accused. Instead of immediately supporting the student, she almost instinctively pushes back, and it’s a really complicated, frustrating dynamic to watch unfold. It’s not a straightforward story at all.

After the Hunt is available on Amazon Prime Video.

2025-12-04 20:38