Brendan Fraser's 'Rental Family' Smashes Box Office Record Set by 'The Whale'

Brendan Fraser is proving, once again, that his comeback is no flash in the pan. The Oscar-winning actor's new drama Rental Family has stormed out of the gate, shattering a key box office record previously held by his 2022 tearjerker The Whale. While The Whale was the movie that earned Fraser his first Academy Award, Rental Family is now showing it can outperform that emotional heavyweight in the one arena Hollywood never ignores: cold, hard cash.

The numbers don't lie, and they're looking mighty fine for the former Mummy star. According to box office tracking, Rental Family is projected to rake in a tidy $3.2 million across 1,925 theaters its opening weekend. That might sound like small potatoes next to a behemoth like Wicked: For Good, which is expected to pull in over $150 million in the same frame, but it’s important to remember that Rental Family was never meant to duke it out with fantasy tentpoles. This is an adult drama playing the long game — and it’s already lapping its predecessor.

To put it bluntly, The Whale — which was widely credited with putting Fraser back on the map — opened in just six theaters back in December 2022, earning $332,152. That’s a per-screen average that was nothing to sneeze at, but Rental Family has come roaring into wide release with a forecasted per-screen average of $1,622, immediately topping six of The Whale's first ten weekend averages. Even when The Whale went wide into 603 theaters, it only managed $144,755; its widest release (1,721 locations) netted $974,155, and its highest-grossing weekend capped out at $1.9 million. So in one fell swoop, Rental Family has outpaced all of those milestones. Talk about hitting the ground running.

Critics are clearly on board with this new chapter. The movie holds a Certified Fresh 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes, soaring above The Whale's more divisive 64%. That critical darling status will only fuel its momentum, especially as awards season ramps up. Rental Family first caught fire at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, where early buzz planted Fraser squarely on Gold Derby’s shortlist of the 15 most likely Best Actor nominees. He’s in the ring alongside heavyweights like Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet, which spells serious awards heat. And let's be honest: the man has already proven he can go the distance once the Academy lights are on.

The timing of its release is also no accident. Slotted in a pre-Thanksgiving weekend, Rental Family is poised to benefit from the holiday moviegoing surge — just like The Whale did during its slow-and-steady climb through Christmas and the Oscars corridor. That season minted The Whale into a $57.6 million global earner, a figure that now looks beatable if Rental Family can keep its legs. Word-of-mouth is already spreading, and with Fraser’s name back in the Oscar conversation, older audiences (the very same ones who made The Whale a quiet blockbuster) are likely to turn out in droves.

Here's a snapshot of how The Whale’s per-screen averages played out across its initial weekends, which Rental Family has now eclipsed:

As you can see, after the initial limited-run adrenaline wore off, The Whale settled into modest but healthy averages. Rental Family, on the other hand, has jumped straight into a wide release with an average that’s higher than most of those later weekends. It’s almost like Fraser leveled up.

Naturally, the big question is whether Rental Family can sustain this momentum all the way to March, when the next Academy Awards ceremony will serve as the ultimate spotlight. If history is any guide, a Fraser Oscar campaign is a powerful engine. Combine that with the film’s crowd-pleasing emotional beats, and you've got a recipe for a box office run that could stretch well past The Whale’s final tally. Some industry pundits are already whispering that a total north of $70 million isn’t out of the question.

For Fraser, it’s a sweet victory lap after years in the wilderness. Rental Family isn’t just another critically acclaimed performance — it’s concrete proof that audiences are ready to show up for him outside the confines of a limited release. It's the kind of broad appeal that transforms a comeback into a lasting career renaissance. And hey, if the guy can go from iconic action hero to Oscar winner and now to box office champ, who’s to say what’s next? Frankly, it’s a pleasure to watch him knock it out of the park all over again.