Timothée Chalamet sets a new personal Rotten Tomatoes record with his Bob Dylan movieA Complete Unknown. Chalamet does his own singing as the legendary singer-songwriter, in a James Mangold-directed film about Dylan’s early days on the East Village folk scene, up to the day he changed everything by going electric at the Newport Folk Festival. Chalamet is generating Oscar buzz for hisDylan biopic, which hits theaters on December 25.
Audiences who’ve already caught Chalamet’s acclaimedA Complete Unknownperformance are also buzzing about the star by taking toRotten Tomatoes,elevating the biopic to a 95% Popcornmeter rating (formerly known as audience score)on the review aggregator. This score ties it with the star’s previous solo Popcornmeter champion,Dune: Part Two. The film has crossed the 250+ verified reviews threshold stipulated by the site for a rating to be displayed.
What This Means For A Complete Unknown
Audiences Appreciate The Movie More Than Critics
Dylan rewrote history when he went electric in 1965, and now Chalamet’s Rotten Tomatoes history is being rewritten byA Complete Unknown, which becomes the new co-leader on the actor’s personal Popcornmeter rankings:
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82%
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87%
72%
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71%
68%
99%
Rotten Tomatoes ratings must always be taken with a grain of salt, particularly on the Popcornmeter side, wheremany films have found themselves targeted for numbers manipulation by viewers. Critics giving the Bob Dylan movie a somewhat lower score than regular moviegoers is potentially an issue due to the film’s awards season prospects. Chalamet is currentlyconsidered the Best Actor frontrunnerand has a real chance to snag the award. It’s difficult to predictA Complete Unknown’s award potential, but the movie’s haul could prove light if that 79% fresh rating is any indication.
Our Take On A Complete Unknown’s Popcornmeter Score
Will Good Buzz Translate Into Big Box Office?
Assuming its 95% RT audience score is a somewhat accurate reflection of reality,A Complete Unknownmay be set to enjoy a strong box office performance, as word-of-mouth on the Christmas release should be positive. The hope is that the movie will catch fire among Dylan fans while drawing in younger audiences who are there mostly to see Chalamet. The film appears to have gotten off to a strong start among audience members, indicating that the movie’s formula is working for moviegoers.
A Complete Unknown Soundtrack Guide: Every Song & When They Play
The Bob Dylan music biopic, A Complete Unknown, has a soundtrack packed with folk and folk-rock songs by the famous musician and many others.
Chalamet and Mangold’s Dylan movie faces stiff holiday competition from the juggernaut that isWicked, along with the horrifying new releaseNosferatu, which is targeting largely the same adult audience asA Complete Unknown. The movie’s high Popcornmeter number may ultimately be a mirage, as more reviews come in. For now,it seems moviegoers are embracing Chalamet like never before in his career, potentially raising the volume on his Oscar buzz.
Elle Fanning’s character is based on one-time Dylan collaborator Suze Rotolo, but the name was changed to Sylvie at Dylan’s own request.
What A Complete Unknown’s Popcornmeter Rating Says About Music Biopics
Moviegoers Can’t Get Enough Of The Genre
A Complete Unknownmay not look like a blockbuster out of the gate, after taking $1.7 million in Tuesday previews, but its numbers could rise as positive word-of-mouth spreads. The film, at the very least, has history on its side, given the bigbox office numbers put up by music biopicsin recent years:
$910,813,521
$288,670,284
$201,634,991
$195,320,400
$186,797,986
$180,828,556
$123,971,376
$67,647,013
$55,668,698
Back to Black(2024)
$50,875,19
A Complete Unknowndirector Mangold had a hand in launching the modern-day music biopic with his Oscar-winning 2005 Johnny Cash movieWalk the Line. The genre remains popular almost 20 years after that film’s successful run. Of the top 10 music biopics at the box office since 2004’sRaykicked things off,two were released in 2024 (Bob Marley: One LoveandBack to Black), suggesting that audiences still crave cinematic bios of their favorite musical artists.
Cash does appear inA Complete Unknown, played this time by Boyd Holbrook.
It’s easy to be critical of the music biopic genre overall, given its well-worn tropes (as hilariously lampooned byWalk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story).A Complete Unknowndoesn’t shy away from those tropes but does raise the bar on musical credibility, thanks in large part to Chalamet’s hard work learning to play guitar and harmonica like Dylan. This latest take on a very familiar and formulaic genre has a lot going for it, and at least going by audience reaction as captured by Rotten Tomatoes, that should be enough to make it a hit.
A Complete Unknown
Cast
A Complete Unknown is a biographical movie that follows a young Bob Dylan as he integrates with New York and catches the eye of the folk singers in the area, eventually propelling him into stardom.
