Why the star-studded crime drama The Kitchen became a major box-office bomb

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Andrea Berloff’s 2019 directorial debut, The Kitchen, featured a powerhouse cast including Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss. Despite their performances, the film struggled with a convoluted plot and poor critical reception. It ultimately became a significant financial failure, marking the worst opening weekend for its two lead stars.

Based on the DC/Vertigo Comics series by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle, the film follows three wives of Irish American mobsters in 1978 Hell's Kitchen. After their husbands are imprisoned, the women seize control of the local organized crime operations. They quickly earn community respect by providing protection and favors, but their rise to power is complicated by shifting alliances with the Italian Mafia and the eventual return of their husbands.

The production, backed by New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures, faced immediate headwinds upon its August 9, 2019, release. While critics praised the lead actresses, the narrative was widely panned as jumbled. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 24% approval rating, and Metacritic assigned it a score of 35 out of 100, indicating generally unfavorable sentiment. Industry analysts noted the film's struggle to find its footing, with The Hollywood Reporter estimating it would lose tens of millions for the studio.

Commercially, the results were stark. Produced on a $38 million budget, the film grossed only $16 million globally. Its domestic debut of $5.5 million was the lowest opening weekend for both McCarthy and Haddish. By its third weekend, the film had been pulled from 2,125 theaters. Despite the presence of acclaimed actors like Margo Martindale and Domhnall Gleeson, the film could not overcome its script issues, serving as a cautionary tale about the difficulty of translating gritty comic book narratives into successful cinematic crime dramas.

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