Timothée Chalamet Smashes Another Box Office Record With Marty Supreme
Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Supreme roared to a record-laced limited bow, scoring the decade’s top per-theater average — the best since La La Land — and vaulting into the ranks of the strongest specialty openings in years.
Timothee Chalamet just opened a 1950s ping-pong movie in six theaters and somehow turned it into a box office flex. The early numbers are huge, the hype is loud, and yes, this is all for a film about a guy obsessed with table tennis.
The opening weekend heat
Per DiscussingFilm, Chalamet's Marty Supreme delivered the strongest per-theater average for any movie in almost a decade, the biggest since La La Land back in 2016. It is also one of the standout limited debuts in recent memory and set a new bar for A24.
- Weekend gross: $875,000 from 6 theaters
- Per-screen average (PSA): $145.9K — the highest ever for A24
- Outpaced the year's previous best limited opening: Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme, which launched at $570K from 6 theaters in May
Advance sales are reportedly strong enough that it might also set an A24 presales record. We will see if that holds once it widens.
So what is this thing?
Josh Safdie's film follows Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a young guy chasing a dream absolutely no one around him buys into, set in the world of 1950s ping-pong. It is a character rocket with a period-sports backdrop, which is a combo I did not have on my 2025 bingo card but here we are.
Festival launch, scores, and the chorus of praise
Marty Supreme had its world premiere as a secret screening in the Main Slate at the 2025 New York Film Festival on October 6, 2025 (via Variety), and critics lit up for it. As of now, it sits at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes from 129 reviews and an 8 on IMDb. The RT consensus basically says the movie runs hot and fast, showcases Chalamet at his most magnetic, and still digs into the messiness of its hero's ambition.
Reaction highlights, in plain English:
Variety's Ramin Setoodeh likened it to Uncut Gems crossed with The Catcher in the Rye and Jerry Maguire, anchored by what he sees as Chalamet's best work yet. DiscussingFilm's Diego Andaluz called the performance a career peak and the film an unforgettable, full-throttle experience. David Crow said it is the Uncut Gems follow-up people have been craving from Safdie. ScreenRant's Liam Crowley went further, calling it the best film of the year, praising Safdie's signature chaos, and even comparing Chalamet's turn to Cody Rhodes' WrestleMania 40 moment. THR's David Canfield said it is Chalamet's career-best and that he was born to play this character.
Awards watch
The movie is off to a strong start with awards bodies: three Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, Best Actor for Chalamet, and Best Screenplay for Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein. And after the premiere, more than a few pundits said Chalamet could be elbowing into next year's Oscar race alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Dwayne Johnson. Yes, that particular pairing raised my eyebrow too, but that is what people are saying.
Chalamet on going all-in
Chalamet has not been shy about how he feels about this one. In a chat with Margaret Gardiner, he talked up both the work and the result:
"This is probably my best performance, and it has been like seven, eight years that I feel like I have been handing in really, really committed, top-of-the-line performances. And it is important to say out loud because the discipline and the work ethic I am bringing to these things, I do not want people to take for granted. I do not want to take for granted. This is really some top-level sh*t."
When Gardiner mentioned George Clooney recently calling him a "great actor," Chalamet joked that he needed the extra confidence boost.
The prep: yes, he trained like an athlete
Chalamet has been cramming for this role for years. He started ping-pong lessons in 2018, then kept at it during COVID, practicing in the living room of his Tribeca place (via THR). Safdie brought in Diego Schaaf to drill the technique, and former American Olympian Wei Wang also coached him. For context, this is the same guy who has cycled through Lisan al-Ghaib, Bob Dylan, Willy Wonka, and King Henry V. The commitment tracks.
What happens next
Marty Supreme opens wide in the United States on December 25, 2025. If the limited numbers are any indication, it is going to be a big conversation piece through the holidays — and possibly the awards corridor — which is not something I expected to say about a mid-century ping-pong epic, but here we are.