Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Vanity Fair Made a Bet on “How to Make a Killing” And Lost: Cover Star Margaret Qualley, Glen Powell Movie Bombs at Box Office

Share

When you book a magazine cover, you’re making a bet on their new project being a hit.

Vanity Fair rolled the dice on Margaret Qualley in a movie called “How to Make a Killing.”

And now the movie is dead.

“Killing” had no Thursday previews. It was rated 56% on Rotten Tomatoes. So we knew what was coming.

Last night, Friday, the A24 flick took in just $1.67 million. With a massive snowstorm looming, the weekend take will be lucky to hit $5 million.

Even if the budget was $40 million — largely because of Powell’s salary — there’s no way “Killing” won’t be a write off. Straight to VOD and airplanes. It actually looks like a plane movie.

None of this is Qualley’s fault. Her cover should have been in conjunction with a hit. But now Vanity Fair is stuck with a cover story attached to a dud movie. Ouch!

They know it, too. The story itself doesn’t appear on landing pages of their website. It’s been buried somewhere in the search engine.

Should be a good topic of conversation at their Oscar party on March 15th.

PS! I missed a good joke. Now A24 is betting on a movie called “Pillion.” So I could have said, “How to Make a Pillion”! Thanks, I’ll be here all weekend!

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Read more

In Other News