After the Hunt: Julia Roberts paid 20 million for a dismal failure
The Hollywood star’s fee for starring in Luca Guadagnino’s latest film is surprising.
It was an event.
Julia Roberts in front of the camera of the director of Call me by your NameLuca Guadagnino, could have been one of the events of the fall. It ultimately turned into a box office fiasco.
The psychological thriller After the Huntpresented at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, will have only grossed $6 million at the worldwide box office, for a budget estimated between… 70 and 80 million. And despite the presence of Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri and Chloë Sevigny, the film suffered the full brunt of scathing reviews, weighing down its performances.
But the financial crash seemed a foregone conclusion. Because according to DeadlineJulia Roberts would have received 20 million dollars to play Alma Imhoff, a beloved Yale professor, caught up in a scandal involving a brilliant student and a close colleague. A role tailor-made for the Oscar-winning actress. An enormous fee for an intimate drama of this order, and which seemed, in any case, impossible to make profitable, knowing that Luca Guadagnino never made more than 100 million at the worldwide box office (his biggest success is Challengerswith Zendaya, who finished at 96 million). Besides, Queerhis previous feature film released in 2024, had already suffered a sad fate, limited to 7 million receipts, despite the presence of Daniel Craig in the lead. So who at Amazon MGM Studios signed such a blank check to Julia Roberts?
