Cut the Check: Anthony Mackie Saudi Arabia Movie Bombs Super Hard

I’m a WWE fan, so I’ve seen my fair share of advertisements for Saudi Arabia. The country’s government has been in league with the WWE for a long time and will even host Wrestlemania next year. I’m also someone who was very much aware of the Riyadh Comedy Festival, and genuinely hope for a documentary about it and how comedians reacted to being called out for it at some point (even though I know it will turn into a two-hour interview with Bill Burr). All this is to say that I thought the Saudi Arabian government had more pull in the entertainment scene. I was wrong!

The government of Saudi Arabia, through the MBC Group, produced a film called Desert Warrior that you have surely heard of (right?). It stars Anthony Mackie and is about the Battle of Ze Qar, which happened in Arabia in the seventh century. The film, which cost $150 million to make, was stuck in development hell for years after wrapping in 2022. Last week, it was released in theaters alongside Michael, which was already a bad move, because the public has been willingly slurping down that movie without a care in the world. Still, it’s hard to argue that Desert Warrior would have done well even if not up against the whitewashing of a popular alleged predator.

I see a lot of stuff because of this job. Things, especially in the entertainment space, are often on my radar because I’m constantly cruising for news to write about. The first time I had heard about this film was that it was not making any money, which is already not a good sign. But just how little money did it make? Against the $150 million budget, Desert Warrior has made $487,848 as of this writing. Less than half a mil! That is a very small amount of money, y’all!

Critics have also not been kind to the movie, but, between Mario and Michael, we’ve certainly learned, just in the last month, that poor reviews won’t keep a movie from being successful. Still, this could end up being a record-setting failure the likes of which Hollywood has never seen before. I’m genuinely wondering if it will even affect anyone involved, because it has failed so spectacularly, there’s a good chance no one will remember it in a week.

It certainly won’t have any impact on Mackie. Avengers: Doomsday will release later this year and likely give him a big ole hit to rest his shield on, but I couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit at him being wrapped up in all of this. The first thing I thought of was a behind-the-scenes video of him from a few years ago, making one of the Marvel movies, explaining that he would yell “cut the check” after every take, in a way that seemed kind of grating. I hope you were yelling that at members of the Saudi government, Anthony, and I hope it was worth it!