Amber Heard’s New Movie Just Released, And It’s A Disaster
Whatever metric you use to judge the new Amber Heard movie, it's a failure. Here's what we know.
This article is more than 2 years old
In 2018, Amber Heard was riding high. That was the year the first Aquaman film came out. She starred as Mera opposite Jason Momoa and was officially a leading lady for DC. The film blew expectations out of the water, flying by the billion-dollar mark at the box office. It seemed like the perfect time to widen her scope and prove herself as an actress when she signed on for a part in the arty-sounding movie, Gully. That film was supposed to release in 2019 and wouldn’t take up much of her time. The movie was postponed and then delayed again due to pandemic closures. Now, the Amber Heard movie is finally available. And even taking the pandemic into account, it’s doing very poorly, both at the box office and with reviews from audiences and critics.
Gully released on June 4, 2021. Since that time, box office records show that the film has earned only $14,000 domestic, with international box offices bringing it up to $22,000. For comparison to a movie that also bombed at the box office in recent months, the Angelina Jolie movie Those Who Wish Me Dead pulled in $2.8 million during its opening weekend, and that was pretty embarrassing. While the name Angelina Jolie may feel like an unfair comparison for this Amber Heard film, it does point out that while movies have had a hard time at the box office in 2020 and 2021, Gully is doing much worse than anyone could have expected.
A few weeks ago, we reported on Gully and the horrendous reviews it was getting. At the time, audiences had the movie at 1.4 on IMDb and 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. Now that more audiences have had time to watch the movie and chime in, which could have raised the averages for Amber Heard, the numbers have only gotten worse. Rotten Tomatoes has the movie at 27%. At IMDb, the rating has dropped to a shocking 1.1. It’s rare to see a movie with numbers that low. Even Cats, which was pretty universally hated, has a rating of 2.8 on IMDb. The critics aren’t saving it, either. Roger Ebert says the movie is made up of random acts of violence. They gave the film 1.5 stars.
Is this hugely embarrassing for Amber Heard? Probably. However, at this point, it’s hard to see how it could hurt her career. The actress is also used to public embarrassment. At one point, millions of people signed a public petition to have her removed from Aquaman 2 following the public revelations from her court battles with her ex Johnny Depp. That would seem deeply hurtful, personal, and embarrassing. The actress has continued on, however, and is still set to star as Mera in Aquaman 2, which is now officially titled Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
While we don’t yet know much of the plot for the DC sequel, we can be sure that Amber Heard is appearing in it. She recently shared a photo of her welcome gift as she went into quarantine before filming begins on the movie in July. It’s true that Gully has been a box office failure and seen horrendous reviews, but it seems like a certainty that this next film for the actress will be a much bigger success. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will release in theaters on December 16, 2022.
