The Dog Stars opened to $8 million domestic. Week two brought a 64 percent drop. Critics at 40. Audiences at 71.

Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars opened August 28 to approximately $8 million domestically and $11.3 million internationally, a $19.3 million global start against a reported $70 million production budget. Its second weekend brought a drop of roughly 64 percent, according to industry tracking.

The film adapts Peter Heller's 2012 novel, with Jacob Elordi as Hig, a pilot navigating a post-apocalyptic world alongside Josh Brolin as survivalist Bangley. Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong, and Allison Janney round out the cast. The film runs 119 minutes, earned an R rating, and a CinemaScore of C+.

Critics scored it 40 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences gave it 71 percent. That gap is the story. The viewers who found the film recommended it. The theatrical problem was attendance, not reception.

Scott's late-career record with adult prestige films at major studios has followed a similar shape: ambitious budgets, serious material, underwhelming theatrical returns. The Dog Stars competed this weekend against Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. For a rated-R literary adaptation with no franchise backstory, there was little oxygen left.

Whether the film reaches a wider audience through streaming is a question the theatrical window cannot answer.