It turns out that the feminist retelling of Frankenstein is not doing very well at the box office.
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘The Bride!‘ is being billed as a “punk rock, feminist reinterpretation of ‘The Bride of Frankenstein,'” and those descriptors alone should be enough to explain its lack of success. According to Variety, the film has only earned “$7.3 million domestically and $13.6 million globally in its first weekend of release.” This is a disastrous pull considering Warner Bros. reportedly spent “$90 million to produce the R-rated monster movie, not including a reported $65 million on marketing expenses.”
“Set in the 1930s, ‘The Bride!’ follows a very lonely Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) and his undead love interest (Jessie Buckley) as deranged outlaws on the run,” a brief explanation of the plot reads. Dismal audience reviews and “a puzzling release date” haven’t exactly helped the movie bring in viewers, resulting in an opening weekend that performed below the projected “$16 million to $18 million domestically and $40 million globally.”
Variety notes that the movie was originally scheduled to be released on Oct. 3, 2025, likely to capitalize on the love for everything spooky during the month of Halloween. But instead, Warner Bros. opted to release the monster flick during March, which didn’t appear to work out in their favor.
While on the press tour that was supposed to increase interest in the film, Gyllenhaal decided to get political.
“And I wonder if what’s happening culturally is going to bring an unstoppable response, especially from women. I don’t know if I’ve said this out loud before. Again, maybe I’ll get in trouble, but I actually think that when I really became a director was the morning that Trump was first elected. I was like, I have a lot more to say than I’ve been saying,” she said.
In a scathing review, Reason Magazine ripped apart nearly every aspect of the film.
“There is not a single scene, line reading, or fleeting moment that lands. Every single actor is miscast. Every single idea is underdeveloped. Every single moment of intended catharsis is maximally cringe. It is a total and complete misfire, in which every creative choice is a bad one. I have not one good word to say about it,” it reads.
“As Ida and Frank continue their Bonnie and Clyde-like crime spree, they spark a national feminist revolution, in which women begin rebelling against the patriarchy in various nonsensical ways, mostly by shouting things in the streets. This is barely set up, gets about 90 seconds of screen time, and then is largely dropped from the plot after a brief exchange between Jake and Myrna, in which Jake earnestly gushes: ‘Imagine if they got this excited over a lady astronaut or a lady brain surgeon.’ Or, Myrna shoots back, ‘a lady detective,’ I think this is supposed to be a provocative zinger. But like everything in the film, it lands with a groan,” the review continues.
“More than anything else, The Bride! feels like the lost remnants of a pre-vibe shift culture, the last vestige of a fully woke world. There are explicit references to riot grrrl culture, and the film’s climax literally involves Ida repeatedly shouting ‘me too!’ at no one in particular.”
Woke nonsense aside, it appears that the film is just badly stitched together and leaves the viewer more confused than compelled.
THE BRIDE! is insufferable. Maggie Gyllenhaal admirably takes some bold creative swings, but all of them go badly awry. From an inane dance number to numerous ill-fitting subplots and side characters to a downright bizarre decision to weave Mary Shelley herself into the… pic.twitter.com/B6nOLRbK1Y
— The HoloFiles – Movie/TV News & Reviews (@theholofiles) March 4, 2026
It remains to be seen whether big-budget studios will continue to take chances with films that are likely to bomb due to their political and cultural messaging after this disaster.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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