Seventy-two and a half million dollars. That's roughly what By Any Means still needs to earn just to break even, and it's only made $9.3 million so far.

The crime thriller starring Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II opened in North America on September 4 and pulled in $7.5 million over its debut weekend, according to Box Office Mojo figures cited by Koimoi. It added $1.8 million on the Labor Day Monday holiday, down about 25% from Sunday. Running across 2,903 theatres, its domestic total sits at $9.3 million. It hasn't opened overseas yet, so that's the whole number.

Here's the part that stings a little more. By Any Means didn't even hold on to third place in the weekend rankings. Coyote vs Acme took that spot, while The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day continued to eat up the top of the chart. A crowded marketplace and a film that needed a strong entry just didn't find one.

Which is odd, because the reviews aren't the problem. Audiences on Rotten Tomatoes have given it 88%, and CinemaScore handed it a B+. Reception, in other words, is fine. Discovery is the issue.

The film cost $29 million to produce, not counting marketing, and Paramount is distributing it. Apply the industry's usual 2.5x multiplier for what a studio needs to clear costs and prints and promotion, and you land at around $72.5 million. So the film needs less than $80 million total, as Koimoi frames it, but it's currently sitting at barely 13% of that target after its opening stretch. That's a steep climb for a movie without an international release to lean on.

The story itself is set in 1960s Mississippi. Abdul-Mateen II plays a young Black FBI agent sent to investigate a string of killings targeting civil rights leaders, and he ends up paired with a mafia hitman named Greg Scarpa, played by Wahlberg, in a case where the line between justice and payback keeps blurring. The cast also has Nicole Beharie, Josh Lucas, David Strathairn and Giancarlo Esposito filling out the supporting roles.

None of that period detail or the reviews changed the arithmetic this weekend. Word of mouth on a B+ CinemaScore can carry a film for a few weeks if theatres keep it around, but with no overseas dates announced and heavyweight holdovers still hogging screens, By Any Means doesn't have much room to make up ground.

Whether Paramount pushes an international rollout to chase that $72.5 million line, or lets the film fade quietly behind Coyote vs Acme and Spider-Man, should become clear over the next couple of weekends.