Robert De Niro’s ‘The Alto Knights’ Bombs at the Box Office: A $50 Million Disappointment That Has Hollywood Talking

In what many are calling one of the most shocking box office flops of 2025, legendary actor Robert De Niro’s latest film, The Alto Knights, has opened to a dismal $3.2 million in its first weekend — a figure that falls dramatically short of its reported $45 to $50 million production budget.

With De Niro’s name once synonymous with box office gold and award-winning performances, the failure of The Alto Knights is sending ripples through Hollywood, sparking discussions about audience trends, marketing missteps, and the future of traditional mob dramas in a changing entertainment landscape.

A Film Years in the Making — And Expectations Were High

The Alto Knights was meant to be a cinematic return to the gritty, character-driven gangster genre that De Niro helped define.

Directed by Barry Levinson, best known for Rain Man and Wag the Dog, the film boasted a high-concept premise:

De Niro plays dual roles as notorious 20th-century Italian-American mob bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello in a true-crime saga that tracks the underworld power struggle that defined an era.

Anticipation for the film had been quietly building among cinephiles and crime drama enthusiasts.

With Warner Bros. Discovery backing the project and early comparisons being drawn to Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, many assumed The Alto Knights would not only perform well but potentially generate awards-season buzz. However, when the movie finally hit theaters, reality proved otherwise.

A Brutal Box Office Reality

According to early weekend tracking figures, The Alto Knights opened to just $3.2 million across over 2,000 theaters nationwide — a catastrophic showing for a film with a hefty mid-range budget and an A-list star like De Niro leading the cast. Industry insiders had predicted a modest debut, perhaps somewhere in the $10–$12 million range given the star power and prestige aura.

Even that conservative estimate now seems laughably optimistic in hindsight.

In fact, some experts now believe that the film could lose upwards of $40 million when factoring in marketing, distribution, and promotional costs.

“It’s not just that the movie underperformed — it cratered,” said a veteran box office analyst who wished to remain anonymous.

“To open with only $3.2 million for a De Niro-led gangster film is beyond disastrous. It shows how much the theatrical landscape has changed, and perhaps, how much certain genres have aged out of mainstream appeal.”

Why Audiences Didn’t Show Up

Several factors have been floated to explain The Alto Knights’ dismal debut. Chief among them is the fact that younger audiences — who now make up the majority of weekend moviegoers — are less likely to be drawn to a period gangster film starring a nearly 81-year-old lead actor.

While De Niro’s legacy is undisputed, the marketing seemed to lean heavily on nostalgia without offering a compelling hook for new viewers.

Another possible issue was the lack of a cohesive marketing campaign.

Although Warner Bros. released a few trailers and behind-the-scenes features, the overall promotional push felt muted, especially when compared to recent blockbuster marketing blitzes.

There was also little viral or influencer support, which is increasingly critical in an era where social media plays a decisive role in driving ticket sales.

“People didn’t even know the movie was coming out,” said one marketing executive not associated with the film.

“You can’t rely on name recognition alone in 2025, even for someone like De Niro.”

A Genre in Decline?

The Alto Knights’ failure may also reflect a broader shift in viewer interest away from the traditional mobster genre.

Once a staple of American cinema — think The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino — the gangster film has seen diminishing returns in recent years. While streaming platforms have provided a home for some well-received crime stories (Peaky Blinders, Narcos, Ozark), theatrical releases have struggled.

Even Scorsese’s The Irishman in 2019, which also starred De Niro and explored similar thematic territory, skipped a wide theatrical release and was largely consumed on Netflix.

Its nearly three-and-a-half-hour runtime and reliance on digital de-aging technology drew mixed reactions.

There’s a growing belief that the mob film may now be a niche interest — beloved by loyal fans but unable to draw large, general audiences to the theater.

A Tough Year for Warner Bros.

For Warner Bros., the flop of The Alto Knights is yet another blemish in what has already been a difficult year.

Despite some critical hits, the studio has struggled to find consistent box office success amid strikes, shifting release schedules, and heightened competition from streaming services.

This failure is especially painful because it was a passion project for several executives.

Insiders say the studio believed The Alto Knights could earn critical acclaim and eventually build prestige appeal through awards nominations. That outcome now appears increasingly unlikely.

“If you can’t open a De Niro-led mob movie to at least $10 million, something is very wrong — either with the film, the marketing, or the timing,” said an industry executive.

De Niro’s Recent Track Record

It’s worth noting that Robert De Niro has had a mixed track record at the box office in the past decade. While he remains a revered icon, not all of his projects have landed well with audiences.

Films like The Comedian (2016), Heist (2015), and The Bag Man (2014) failed to make significant waves commercially or critically.

However, De Niro was recently praised for his role in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), which performed modestly at the box office but garnered widespread critical acclaim.

That film, however, was also backed by Apple and had the benefit of massive online promotion and festival hype — something The Alto Knights noticeably lacked.

Critical Response Adds to the Struggle

Early reviews for The Alto Knights have been lukewarm at best. While some praised De Niro’s performance in the dual roles, others criticized the film for being slow-paced, lacking originality, and indulging in genre clichés.

Rotten Tomatoes currently lists the film at a 47% critic score, while the audience rating is hovering just above 60%.

“It’s a decent film, but there’s nothing new here,” wrote one critic for The Hollywood Reporter. “It feels like a movie that might’ve hit harder twenty years ago.”

That sentiment seems to be shared by the general public, which is now faced with more viewing choices than ever before — from high-concept horror films and superhero reboots to prestige streaming series and international content.

What Happens Next?

With such a poor theatrical debut, the next step for The Alto Knights will likely be an expedited release to digital platforms and streaming services.

Warner Bros. has not yet announced a release date for VOD, but insiders suggest that the film could be available for home viewing within a month to try and recoup some of the losses.

Some observers believe the film may find a second life on streaming, where older demographics — De Niro’s core fanbase — are more likely to watch at home rather than visit theaters.

Still, the damage to the film’s box office reputation is already done, and there are serious questions about how projects like this will be greenlit in the future.

What This Means for the Future of Legacy Stars

The failure of The Alto Knights also raises questions about how studios should approach projects starring older Hollywood legends.

While De Niro, Al Pacino, and others remain household names, their drawing power at the box office is no longer what it once was — especially among younger generations unfamiliar with their earlier work.

“De Niro is a titan of cinema, no doubt,” said an entertainment journalist. “But if studios continue to bank on nostalgia alone, they’re setting themselves up for disappointment.”

Instead, some suggest legacy actors could be better served by taking on smaller roles in ensemble casts or lending their gravitas to television and streaming projects, where the stakes — and budgets — are lower, and the opportunities for character development are richer.

Could There Be an Awards Season Redemption?

Despite the commercial failure, there’s still a remote possibility that The Alto Knights could gain traction during awards season.

If De Niro’s dual performance garners critical recognition, the film could see renewed interest, especially from Academy voters who have long admired his body of work.

But given the mixed reviews and poor financial performance, that seems like a long shot.

In an increasingly competitive field, where films must resonate both critically and commercially, The Alto Knights may simply not have the legs.

Robert De Niro’s The Alto Knights was meant to be a powerful return to a genre he helped build. Instead, it has become a cautionary tale about the challenges of traditional filmmaking in a rapidly evolving industry.

Its disastrous $3.2 million opening against a $45–$50 million budget marks one of the most painful box office failures of the year — and perhaps a turning point in how Hollywood approaches legacy-driven prestige films.

For audiences and studios alike, The Alto Knights is a stark reminder that no amount of star power can guarantee success in 2025.

And for De Niro, it’s a sobering moment in a legendary career — one that will hopefully pivot toward fresher, more resonant projects in the future.