There’s no rule or magical formula that allows critical acclaim to translate into commercial success, and while Robert Eggers’ The Northman did eventually achieve both, it ended up taking the long route to profitability.
A Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 89 percent from a whopping 369 reviews makes the $90 million Viking epic one of 2022’s best-reviewed big budget releases, and those who loved The Northman were nothing short of enamored with the brutally unflinching and unexpectedly psychedelic rampage of revenge embarked upon by Alexander Skarsgård’s Amleth.
However, a 64 percent user rating on the aggregation site from over 2,500 votes proves that the general public was nowhere near as easily won over by the highly specific charms of the film, while a box office haul of under $70 million had the bean counters at Universal growing concerned that they’d end up losing a fortune on the project.
Thankfully, though, The Northman ended up turning a profit after spending months as a major player on the VOD circuit, leading Redditors to start the autopsy by questioning what it was about the movie that turned off the masses so much.
While it’s hard to quantify why any feature fails to catch fire with the cinemagoing audiences, the consensus is pointing in the direction of a hard R-rated story that runs for 136 minutes with plenty of trippy asides, gruesome violence, and introspective subtext isn’t exactly going to hook folks in the same way a splashy Marvel Cinematic Universe effort or explosive actioner would.
The Northman can be called a success looking at the numbers, then, but it hardly took the easy route to victory.