‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Live Imax Cast Q&A Sells Out After Buzzy Venice Premiere

Rebecca Rubin
·2 min read
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Audiences can’t get enough of “Don’t Worry Darling.”

After the movie’s Venice Film Festival premiere, which sent the internet ablaze after Harry Styles may or may not have spit on his co-star Chris Pine and Florence Pugh avoided eye-contact with her director Olivia Wilde, the buzz around the Warner Bros. release is only escalating.

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Imax’s live-event screening of “Don’t Worry Darling,” which includes a Q&A with the cast and director, has sold out in 21 locations. In less than 24 hours, more than 13,000 tickets have been purchased across 100 North American locations. Screenings in several markets, like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Seattle, are completely booked, while 15 additional locations are at least half full.

Per Imax, it’s selling tickets faster than the company’s other recent live events, including “Kanye West: Donda Experience,” “Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back” rooftop concert documentary and cast-attended screenings of “Jurassic World Dominion” and Jordan Peele’s “Nope.”

Wilde and (most of) her cast — Harry Styles, Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll, Sydney Chandler, Kate Berlant, Asif Ali and Douglas Smith — will participate in the live Q&A at AMC’s Lincoln Square, which will be broadcast across the country. Pugh (who is keeping her press obligations to a minimum) and Chris Pine will not attend the event.

The lead-up to “Don’t Worry Darling,” which debuts in theaters on Sept. 23, has been a never-ending magnet for drama. Prior to the headline-dominating turn of events at Venice, Shia LaBeouf (who was initially hired in the role that eventually went to Styles) disputed Wilde’s claim that he was fired from the set.

“My responsibility was towards [Florence],” Wilde recently told Vanity Fair. “I’m like a mother wolf. Making the call was tricky, but in a way he understood. I don’t think it would’ve been a process he enjoyed. He comes at his work with an intensity that can be combative.”

It marks Wilde’s second feature directorial effort after her acclaimed comedy “Booksmart.” Pugh and Styles play a newlywed couple living in the quaint, experimental utopia called Victory. Pugh’s character becomes increasingly suspicious that her husband’s hyper-secret company may be hiding disturbing secrets.

In Variety’s review, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote, “Between the pop ambition, the tasty dream visuals, and the presence of Harry Styles in his first lead role, ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ should have no trouble finding an audience. But the movie takes you on a ride that gets progressively less scintillating as it goes along.”

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