| Bad Times at the El Royale | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Drew Goddard |
| Written by | Drew Goddard |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Seamus McGarvey |
| Edited by | Lisa Lassek |
| Music by | Michael Giacchino |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates |
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Running time | 141 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $32 million |
| Box office | $31.9 million |
Bad Times at the El Royale is a 2018 American neo-noir hyperlink thriller film written, directed, and produced by Drew Goddard. It stars an ensemble cast that includes Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, and Chris Hemsworth. The plot centers on six strangers and an employee at the El Royale, a hotel located along the California–Nevada border, whose personal secrets intersect on a fateful night in the late 1960s. The film explores themes of morality, faith, and redemption, with the state border and other visual elements symbolizing the concept of right and wrong.
Goddard began writing the spec script for the film in November 2016, and compiled a list of songs into his screenplay. After telling major studios to avoid buying the script if they could not buy the licenses for each piece of music, he sold it to 20th Century Fox in March 2017. Principal photography started in January 2018 with cinematographer Seamus McGarvey and finished in April. The El Royale hotel was built entirely on a studio set in Burnaby, Canada, under the supervision of production designer Martin Whist, who had envisioned designing a perfectly symmetrical hotel. Additional filming took place in the United States. During post-production, editing was completed by Lisa Lassek and the musical score was composed by Michael Giacchino.
Bad Times at the El Royale's marketing efforts included posters, trailers, and television advertisements, stylized to evoke nostalgia of the noir genre and to make the movie stand out against other films in theaters. The film premiered in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on September 22, 2018, and released on October 12 in the United States. It underperformed at the box office, grossing $31.9 million against a $32 million budget, and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its ensemble cast, cinematography, and soundtrack, but criticized its pacing, runtime, character beats, and were polarized on Goddard’s screenplay. It received various awards and nominations, most notably at the 45th Saturn Awards, for its writing, acting, cinematography, and music.