Nicole Kidman's 2014 Thriller Based On A Beloved Book Was A Big Box Office Flop

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Nicole Kidman has had an impressive, fascinating career that has spanned more than 40 years. From early successes like "Dead Calm" to giant blockbusters like "Aquaman," she's reinvented herself multiple times and is arguably more popular now in the 2020s than she's ever been. But in the 2010s, her career was in a slightly less certain place. As she was trying to find her footing, Kidman wound up in a thriller with a great deal of promise, but one that ultimately wound up as a sizable flop.

Released in 2014, "Before I Got to Sleep" sees Nicole Kidman as a woman with a memory problem, one that leads her character to some dark places. It's based on the best-selling novel of the same name from S.J. Watson, with a cast that also includes Oscar-winner Colin Firth ("The King's Speech") and Mark Strong ("Kingsman: The Secret Service"). Meanwhile, Rowan Joffé ("Brighton Rock") was in the director's chair. All of the pieces on the board seemed very promising.

The movie centers on Christine Lucas (Kidman). Ever since a vicious attack nearly killed her, she has suffered from amnesia, leaving her unable to form new memories. Every morning, she is reacquainted with her husband, Ben (Firth), and other elements of her life. Per her doctor's (Strong) instructions, she keeps a video diary. As Christine begins to uncover scary truths about her past, she begins to question everything.

Sad to say, the final product isn't one of Kidman's best movies and TV shows. Rather, it was a critical and commercial misfire that was part of a series of misfires in the 2010s for Kidman. It joined "Trespass," "The Paperboy," and "Stoker" as a swing and a miss for the actress.

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Released by the now-defunct Clarius Entertainment in North America, "Before I Go to Sleep" hit theaters on the weekend of November 7, 2014. It was a quiet weekend, one that a movie with this level of star power should have, theoretically, been well positioned on in terms of calendar placement. Unfortunately, it arrived with minimal praise from a tiny distributor. It currently boasts a mere 37% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which absolutely didn't help matters any.

On its opening weekend, the thriller failed to get anywhere near the top ten domestically, pulling in just $1.8 million. It placed 15th on the charts, making even less than "Annabelle," the low-budget juggernaut that helped spawn The Conjuring Universe, which made $1.9 million on its fifth weekend in theaters. "Ouija" topped the charts in its second frame with $10.7 million, while Jack Gyllenhaal's "Nightcrawler" was the big new release with $10.4 million.

It was a bad start with no upside to be found in the weeks that followed, in no small part because the competition got much more steep in a hurry.

Disney's "Big Hero 6" took the number one spot the following weekend with $56.2 million, followed by "Interstellar," which has been called Christopher Nolan's emotional masterpiece, with $47.5 million. "Before I Go to Sleep" was out of theaters in just a few weekends, having made just $17.6 million worldwide, with more than 80% of that money coming from international theaters.

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The only good news is that the movie was cheap to make, with a reported production budget of $22 million. That's an amount that, over time, can be made up on DVD, streaming, etc. But it was still a huge disappointment for Nicole Kidman and all involved at the time. Fortunately, Kidman had "Paddington," which is so good it makes other movies look silly, in the can, hitting theaters in December. That helped kick off a more fruitful period of her career, which has been going especially strong in the 2020s.

So, what went wrong here? Ultimately, it's just an example of a movie not living up to the source material. It happens all the time. "Before I Go to Sleep" is a great book to read if you like Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl," but it didn't make for a very good movie. Kidman is no stranger to disappointing adaptations, having been in "The Golden Compass" several years earlier. It's a tale as old as Hollywood itself, unfortunately: What works in a book doesn't always work on the screen.

Fortunately, Kidman works very consistently and in very popular projects. As of this publication, she's starring alongside Sandra Bullock in "Practical Magic 2," which is shaping up to be a big hit. Rowan Joffé, meanwhile, has not directed a movie since. He wrote 2019's "The Informer," directed one episode of the TV series "Tin Star" (which he also wrote), and wrote the Colin Farrell-led "Ballad of a Small Player" for Netflix in 2025.

You can grab "Before I Go to Sleep" on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.