Hugh Jackman’s ‘The Death of Robin Hood’ Just Earned A CinemaScore Grade That Tells Its Own Story
Hugh Jackman has spent decades being the guy audiences can count on for spectacle, charm, and a reliably good time at the movies. ‘The Death of Robin Hood’ asks them to set all of that aside. A24 built its marketing around a single haunting image of Jackman buried under a grey beard and hollow eyes, paired with a tagline promising this version of the legendary outlaw was never the hero people remember.
Written and directed by Michael Sarnoski, the filmmaker behind ‘Pig’ and ‘A Quiet Place: Day One,’ the film follows an aging, gravely wounded Robin Hood who ends up in the care of a mysterious woman as he reckons with a lifetime of crime and bloodshed. It’s a dark adaptation of the 17th century ballad Robin Hood’s Death, with Jodie Comer, Bill Skarsgård, Murray Bartlett, and Noah Jupe rounding out the cast. The film was shot largely in Northern Ireland, and critics have repeatedly compared its windswept, mournful tone to Clint Eastwood’s ‘Unforgiven.’
Critics generally responded well to that grim ambition, with the movie settling around 68 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 59 on Metacritic, numbers reflecting a film reviewers respected more than they fully embraced. Then came opening night, and the audience verdict told a different story. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of C+ on its A+ to F scale, exactly the result now circulating in the screenshot fans are passing around online.
That is a notably tepid grade for a film carrying both Jackman’s name and one of literature’s most enduring folk heroes. The reviews had already been flagged as divisive heading into release, with some critics praising the craft and others pushing back on the film’s punishing, joyless tone. A C+ suggests the average moviegoer landed somewhere in that same split, curious enough to show up but unsure what to make of what they saw once the credits rolled.
Jackman has been candid about why he wanted to dismantle his own hero image for this role. He told Sharp Magazine that this part felt like “almost a cautionary tale about the power of story and mythology, about the stories we believe, the ones we invest in and the stories we tell about ourselves.” That same tension between myth and reality seems to be exactly what’s splitting reactions right now.
The lukewarm grade lands at an awkward commercial moment too. A24’s R-rated film opened from roughly 1,000 venues, targeting just $3 million to $4 million for its debut, well below the $9.1 million opening weekend that 2018’s Taron Egerton led ‘Robin Hood’ managed despite being considered a flop in its own right. Every Robin Hood adaptation released over the past 35 years has landed under 60 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and Sarnoski’s version is shaping up to be the rare one that wins over critics even as it leaves casual audiences cold.
So does stripping the legend down to its bloodiest, most human core make for a better story, or did Sarnoski and Jackman trade away the fun that made Robin Hood worth retelling in the first place?
