Timothée Chalamet has been starring in a lot of movies that have made some big box office moolah, and he has even more hitting the movie schedule in 2026. His latest, the A24 movie release Marty Supreme, set new box office records for the studio, earning its biggest domestic opening of $28.3 million and becoming its highest-grossing film with $157 million worldwide. But not all movie release news is good news, and the actor apparently has very complicated feelings about the future of movies. I just didn't see the poor ballet taking shrapnel coming.
Bonus footage from “A CNN & Variety Town Hall Event: Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey” (via Variety) had the Wonka actor talk about seeing an article that stated the Gen Z crowd is more of a moviegoing crowd than millennials. While sharing what he believed audiences want in a theatrical release, Chalamet tried to explain where he stood on attempts to keep movie theaters alive:
Some people want to be entertained quickly. I’m really right in the middle, because I admire people [saying], ‘Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters alive. We gotta keep this genre alive.’ And another part of me feels like, if people want to see it — like Barbie, like Oppenheimer — they’re going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it.
This take sounds pretty pro-theaters, at least when it comes to major releases. The actor mentions global phenomenons like Barbie and Oppenheimer, here, but I think some of his movies like Wonka and Dune are particular theatrical catnip, too.
In fact, the cultural phenomenon of Barbenheimer reminded the world that audiences aren’t going to wait until a trending movie hits theaters. The weekend box office numbers of the two flicks were a brilliant bombshell for 2023, both earning a total of $536 million globally. Its same-day ticket screening sales by 20,000 AMC Stubs royalty members even led to the theater chain creating more matinee showings. So, yes, certain big movies don’t need a lot of convincing to urge theatergoers to purchase tickets.
So, there's hope for theaters, yet. However, in the same breath, Timothèe Chalamet also brought up arts with audiences that have seen waning audiences in recent years, like ballet and opera. That's a business he does not want to be into.
I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore’ — all respect to the ballet and opera people out there.
Talk about random shrapnel! The ballet's over here just trying to stay in existence and a joke from one of the greatest actors out there right now is drawing attention to its struggles. It kind of makes me want to get out there and find a production of Swan Lake to purchase tickets to right now!
I truly understand Chalamet's hope that the movies don't become a dying art (like "practical effects" and more have started to become), but at the same time, his comments about Barbenheimer indicate he still has hope. Especially since Dunesday (the similarly nicknamed release of Dune Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday) is coming on December 28, 2026.
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