Black Bag reaches a major box office milestone

Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag has already established itself among the critics as one of their favorites this year, and now it has hit another milestone. The film, which is said to have a production budget of between $50 million and $60 million, has now earned $15 million globally.

As we talk about milestones, it has a critical one too, as it sits close to Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989) with a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. His other films with direction credits having above 90% approval scores include King of the Hill (1993), And Everything is Going Fine (2010), Logan Lucky (2010), and more.

What is Black Bag about?

The film focuses on George (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), a husband and wife who are spies in the film. It is suspected Kathryn is involved in a confidential leak, which can cost thousands of lives as it can lead to a nuclear meltdown.

As the viewers will see, the plot twist at the end will leave them stunned following the culprit's reveal. We won't spoil the ending for readers here but they should know that there's no post-credits scene in case they choose to sit through the credits.

Initially, it appeared like Black Bag would hold up at the box office as it earned $2.7 million on its first day of release and added almost 6% the next day, adding another $2.9 million. All in all, it has garnered $9.8 million domestically, while the rest of the revenue came internationally.

Black Bag was released alongside Novocaine, Opus, The Electric State, and more. While Novocaine had the best weekend, with the film earning $8.8 million by then. This was followed by the David Soderbergh film at $7.6 million and Micky 17, which was released on March 7, 2025, collecting $7.4 million.

Recently, Michael Fassbender discussed companies supporting potentially budget-heavy films in an interview with IndieWire. He said,

"It was a fantastic collection of characters. And it falls into the film demographic that we just don’t see a lot of these days. That it was going to get made was exciting. It’s hard for film companies to support films in that budget category, there’s not many $30 to $40 million films anymore, unfortunately."

If Black Bag is expecting profits, it needs to earn just double its budget, going by the rule of thumb to break even.