Olivia Colman's 'Wicker' Is Quietly Turning Into Black Bear's Biggest Surprise Hit

Few pitches sound stranger than a medieval fable about a lonely fisherwoman who orders a husband made of wicker. Yet ‘Wicker‘, the R-rated romantic fantasy comedy starring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård, has become one of the more unlikely box office stories of the season. It is the kind of small, odd, word-of-mouth movie the theatrical business rarely rewards this strongly.

The film comes from married filmmakers Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer, who adapted it from Ursula Wills’ short story ‘The Wicker Husband’. Colman plays the ostracized Fisherwoman, Peter Dinklage is the Basketmaker who weaves her new spouse, and Skarsgård plays the Wicker Husband himself. Elizabeth Debicki, Richard E. Grant and Nabhaan Rizwan round out the cast.

Now the numbers are catching up with the buzz. ‘Wicker’ has grossed around $29 million worldwide, and it is now eyeing a finish somewhere between $40 million and $50 million. The movie reportedly cost just $10 million to produce.

‘Wicker’ premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and earned enthusiastic reviews, which set off a competitive bidding situation for the film. Black Bear Pictures took North American rights and committed to a meaningful theatrical release. One report said the studio paid only $2.5 million for those rights, which makes the current returns look even better.

The film opened on October 23 in 1,471 theaters and earned $5.75 million over its first weekend, good for fifth place. That was the best domestic debut in Black Bear’s history, and it landed slightly above the roughly $5.5 million that early industry tracking had targeted. Its per-theater average also beat several bigger-budget releases playing on far more screens, including the Jason Statham action movie ‘Shelter’.

Box office watchers noticed the strong debut right away. They pointed out that the film had a good chance of becoming the independent studio’s highest-grossing domestic release. A better-than-expected Sunday in its second weekend only strengthened that case.

What really turned heads was the film’s staying power. In its second weekend, ‘Wicker’ expanded to 2,374 theaters and fell by less than 30%, earning roughly $4.1 million and climbing to fourth place. That weekend also pushed it past ‘Shelter’ as Black Bear’s biggest domestic release of the year, since that film finished with $12.8 million.

The third weekend brought another gentle dip of 23%, with $3.3 million and a domestic total of $19.8 million. Another $9.1 million came from international markets. The film also had a strong launch in the UK and Ireland, where it became the first Black Bear release to open at number one.

A 4DX run was extended because of audience demand, which is not something most period comedies about wicker husbands can claim. The film has an R rating and a 105-minute runtime, and it reached Australian theaters in early November.

Reviews have helped. The movie holds a Certified Fresh 95% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a 92% audience score. That combination of critical praise and enthusiastic word of mouth is hard to manufacture for a film this offbeat.

The filmmakers have said they wanted a comedy that looks like a 17th-century Dutch painting, working from oil paintings rather than movie references. They also said they pushed the comedy as far as it could go while letting the romance surprise them as they wrote. That mix of silliness and sincerity seems to be exactly what viewers are responding to.

The financial picture is just as encouraging. The studio paid a modest sum for the rights, the budget was small, and the film kept adding to its total every week. A film generally needs to earn around 2.5 times its production cost to break even, which would put ‘Wicker’ at about $25 million. It has now cleared that bar worldwide, and the extra weeks of play only add to the profit.

First trailer for ‘WICKER’, starring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård. The film follows an embarrassed fisherwoman who asks a basket maker to make her a husband out of wicker. In theaters on October 23. https://t.co/GETfcWQJ12
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 30, 2026

For a small independent release, the road ahead still matters. Competition from bigger releases can squeeze screens, and no film holds this well forever. Even so, the steady holds, glowing reviews and healthy international start suggest ‘Wicker’ has plenty of runway left.