The new sci-fi movie Mercy has had a difficult theatrical run so far, having grossed only a third of its reported budget at the domestic box office. Mercy stars Rebecca Ferguson and Chris Pratt in the lead roles and uses the “screenlife” format, in which all the action unfolds on digital screens. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, who has devoted his career to making “screenlife” movies, Mercy received poor reviews upon release. While it struggles to recover its reported budget, it can celebrate minor victories, like overtaking similar underperformers on the all-time box office charts. However, Mercy still hasn’t overtaken one of the least memorable horror films from the “found-footage” era of genre filmmaking; in many ways, it was the precursor to the “screenlife” movement we’re seeing now.
Mercy follows a police officer who is accused of murdering his wife, and is given a deadline to prove his innocence before an AI-powered judge. Pratt stars as the protagonist, while Ferguson plays the judge. Both stars have previously experienced major success in the sci-fi space, with Pratt headlining three Jurassic World movies and appearing in a string of Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbusters, and Ferguson starring in Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune trilogy and the Apple TV series Silo. Mercy represents a new low for them both, with its 24% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The aggregator website’s consensus reads, “Constricting its two stars inside an airless presentation of a clunky techno-thriller premise, Mercy is tedious enough to make you cry uncle.”
‘Mercy’ Is Running the Risk of Being Forgotten
The movie has only made $20 million so far domestically, and around $40 million at the worldwide box office. It was produced on a reported budget of $60 million, which would make its break-even point $120 million — studios often estimate break-even at roughly twice the production budget to account for marketing and distribution. With $41 million worldwide, Mercy still trails the 2012 film Chernobyl Diaries, which grossed $42 million in its worldwide run. The found-footage horror movie follows a group of American tourists who find themselves fighting zombies in the Ukrainian town of Pripyat. This is where the Chernobyl disaster took place in the 1980s. Chernobyl Diaries earned poor reviews and is now sitting at an 18% score on Rotten Tomatoes. In his review for Slant Magazine, Nick Schager wrote that it has “the brain of a mushy radioactive mutant zombie.” You can watch Mercy in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
- Release Date
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January 19, 2026
- Runtime
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100 minutes
- Director
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Timur Bekmambetov
- Writers
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Marco van Belle
- Producers
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Charles Roven, Majd Nassif, Robert Amidon, Timur Bekmambetov