
After being swept aside at the US box office by Spider-Man, can Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley find a friendlier home in the UK this week?
For his first movie since he took home Oscar gold for 2017’s The Shape Of Water, director Guillermo del Toro has put his personal stamp on film noir. He’s brought to the screen the second filming of William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel Nightmare Alley, first filmed the year after its publication by Edmund Goulding.
Del Toro’s take on the material is exquisite, beautifully stylistic and played sublimely by an ensemble lit up by Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper, Willem Dafoe and Rooney Mara (amongst others). But also, it arrives in the UK off a wave of critical affection, but nowhere near the eyeballs it deserves on it.
Launched in the US the week before Christmas, Nightmare Alley promptly got swept aside at the box office
The film, distributed by Disney, launched in the US the week before Christmas, and promptly got swept aside pretty brutally at the box office. Hindsight is easy, given that few saw just what a raging success its key opponent – Spider-Man: No Way Home – proved to be. Still, even accepting that dramas aimed at older audiences have hardly flourished in cinemas over the last year or two, its $9.3m US gross to date is a huge disappointment.
The point has been made, rightly, that Nightmare Alley is a film that’ll find its audience over time, and a black and white version is also playing as it builds up momentum for awards season. But also, it deserves to be seen on a big screen, and its initial cinema release is the best chance to be able to do that.

Nightmare Alley is sublimely lit up by Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper and a fantastic ensemble cast.
Its release in the UK is already looking a little more fortuitous than in the US. Spider-Man is still around, and soaking up heavy amounts of admission money. However, it’s over a month into its run now, and more screen space is opening up. Furthermore, when Omicron surged, some notable films delayed their release by a mixture of weeks and months, and the competitive field has lightened.
The biggest competitive new release it now faces is Kenneth Branagh’s also Oscar-feted Belfast. Both are getting wide releases, up to over 300 screens apiece in the UK. As such, they’re being afforded a chance of cutting through.
The hope is there’s increased confidence from audiences again to sit in a room with other people and watch a film in a cinema
Furthermore, as they arrive, so the Omicron bubble appears to be bursting somewhat. Cases are tumbling at the speed they increased a few weeks ago, and there’s a little bit of a breathe out moment for cinemas. In turn, the hope is there’s increased confidence from audiences again to sit in a room with other people and watch a film in a cinema. Had Nightmare Alley had a release in the UK a month, or even two weeks ago, it’s hard to imagine that would have been the case.
It’s still uphill anyway, but there’s a solid record for del Toro at the UK box office. Perhaps the success in smaller venues enjoyed by The French Dispatch in the UK last autumn – grossing around £4m – is a path for Nightmare Alley to follow. Certainly independent cinemas would love that, and whilst few are expecting del Toro’s latest to dislodge the Screams and Spider-Mans of this world, it should at least get a slightly warmer commercial welcome on these shores.