Film critics slapped Mercy with a rough 21% on Rotten Tomatoes. And in 2026, a score like that usually means a painful death at the box office and a fast trip to streaming. But the Chris Pratt sci-fi flick is proving otherwise. Instead, Mercy opened at $11.1 million, grabbed the No. 1 spot and even knocked Avatar: Fire and Ash off the top after a five-week reign. Even more surprising is that its RT audience score currently sits at 82% and continues to climb as more and more people see it. You don’t see that every weekend.
Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson have been here before. The Guardians of the Galaxy and Mission: Impossible movies were huge hits. A No. 1 opening probably doesn’t even register as big news to them anymore. But for director Timur Bekmambetov, it does. This is his first chart-topper, years after Wanted set his critical high with a 72% Fresh score. Mercy, of course, sits way below that, even trailing his other cult misfires like Abe the Vampire Guy at 34% and Where’s Charlton Heston? at 24%. And yet, people are buying tickets. A lot of tickets.
A brutal winter storm shut down major US cities and turned moviegoing into a chore this weekend. The box office numbers limped along, and it became one of the weakest in recent memory. But Mercy still led the pack. It’s not the numbers studios dream about, but given frozen streets and closed theaters, it reads as a relative win for those involved. Release this thing on a clear weekend, and you might be looking at a very different headline.
And it’s easy to see why audiences are enjoying it. Despite what critics think, the movie itself feels like a throwback to the blockbusters from yesteryear. If this came out in the ’90s, Arnold Schwarzenegger would’ve been sprinting through it, probably as Chris Pratt’s Detective Chris Raven. Set in August 2029, Raven wakes up in Mercy Court, a justice system run by an AI judge with access to everything. Judge Maddox, played by Rebecca Ferguson, informs him that he murdered his wife, Nicole. The system doesn’t miss. But he says it did, and he now has ninety minutes to prove it or die.
Avatar: Fire and Ash slid to second with $7 million, now at $378.4 million domestic and $1.37 billion worldwide. It’s not Cameron’s biggest hit, but it’s still part of a trilogy that’s pushing six billion globally. Zootopia 2 held third with $5.7 million in weekend nine and a massive $1.744 billion worldwide. Marty Supreme stuck around at fourth thanks to awards chatter. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple rounded out the top five and as it continues to search for an audience.
Mercy seems to have found one, even when everyone said it wouldn’t.
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