Tom Hanks Drama ‘A Man Called Otto’ Crosses $100 Million Globally
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“A Man Called Otto,” a heartfelt drama starring Tom Hanks as a cranky widower, has notched an important box office milestone, crossing $100 million globally.
The film’s tally stands at $100.4 million, including $61.2 million in North America and $39.2 million internationally. Overseas, the top-selling markets are the United Kingdom ($6.28 million), Australia ($5.17 million), Mexico ($5.06 million), Spain ($2.6 million) and Germany ($2.5 million).
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In pandemic times, the $100 million benchmark is notable because only a few movies aimed at older audiences, such as Baz Luhrmann’s kaleidoscopic biopic “Elvis,” Tom Cruise’s sequel “Top Gun: Maverick,” and Brad Pitt’s action-comedy “Bullet Train,” have managed to bring audiences to theaters.
Sony initially planned to premiere the $50 million-budgeted “A Man Called Otto” around Christmas, but the studio decided to open the film in limited release theaters on Dec. 30 before expanding it nationwide on Jan. 13. By waiting until the new year, which is usually a slower time at the box office, the movie avoided getting lost in the crush of holiday releases.
Marc Forster directed “A Man Called Otto,” the second adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s 2012 novel “A Man Called Ove,” following the 2015 Swedish film of the same name. Hanks plays Otto Anderson, a grump who falls into a depression after his wife dies. But his attitude begins to turn around after he strikes up an unlikely and life-changing friendship with a young family that moves in next door. SF Studios and TSG co-financed the film.
Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman was mixed on “A Man Called Otto,” but he praised the casting of Hanks. “We’ve seen this sort of get-off-my-lawn curmudgeon many times before,” he wrote. “But with the right actor and the right script, it’s a formula […] that audiences never get tired of — and Hanks, make no mistake, is the right actor for this role.”
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