Emma Stone’s Bugonia Sets First Box Office Record For Oscar-Nominated Director

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The new film Bugonia is predicted to have a record-breaking opening weekend. Starring Emma Stone, it marks her fourth collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos. The movie is a remake of the Korean film Save the Green Planet!, originally directed by Jang Joon-hwan, and centers around Stone’s character being kidnapped by a man who thinks she’s an alien.

Now that Bugonia is widely available in theaters, the remake has quickly broken a box office record. Deadline reports the film, starring Stone, is predicted to earn $4.4 million domestically this weekend. This is Lanthimos’s biggest opening weekend ever, surpassing the previous record of $2.9 million set by Poor Things.

The dark comedy has earned $5.5 million at the domestic box office so far. However, with a $45 million budget – making it the director’s most expensive film yet – Bugonia still needs to earn significantly more to break even. The director’s biggest box office success remains 2023’s Poor Things, which grossed $34 million domestically and $111 million worldwide.

Look, it’s been a tough year for movies at the box office, but I think Bugonia might actually have a shot at turning things around. The holiday season is coming up, which always helps, and honestly, critics seem to really like it – it’s sitting pretty at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a great sign!

Following the premiere of Bugonia at the Venice Film Festival in August, Emma Stone quickly became a frontrunner for Best Actress. A lot of the buzz around her performance stems from the fact that she shaved her head for the role. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Stone admitted she was “so afraid” to do it, explaining she essentially went into a dissociative state, feeling like she needed to “play dead.”

If Emma Stone wins the Best Actress Oscar, she’ll make history by becoming the first actor since Katharine Hepburn to win the award three times. Hepburn currently holds the record for the most acting Oscars with four wins, including for her roles in Morning Glory, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, and On Golden Pond.

Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone have proven to be a successful pairing, earning multiple Academy Award nominations and wins for their films. Lanthimos received Best Director nominations for both Poor Things and The Favourite, and Stone won her second Oscar for Poor Things. Bugonia is the second time Lanthimos has worked with Jesse Plemons, following their previous collaboration on Kinds of Kindness.

Yorgos Lanthimos has announced he’s taking a short break from making movies, telling Collider there are no projects currently in development. Emma Stone also doesn’t have any films planned for the near future.

Bugonia is now playing in theaters.

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2025-11-02 01:33