A Big Bold Beautiful Journey was first released in the Philippines on September 17, 2025, and was released in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing on September 19, 2025. The film received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
When his car is clamped, David visits the peculiar "Car Rental Company" and finds himself in a bizarre audition. He is given the only model of car offered, a 1994 Saturn SL with a special GPS. Driving to a friend's wedding, David is introduced to Sarah, who is uninterested in marriage or relationships, while David, who emigrated from Ireland as a teenager, reveals his childhood dream was becoming a husband and father. He declines to dance with her, a decision he soon regrets, and she spends the night with someone else.
Driving home, the GPS convinces David to embark on a "big, bold, beautiful journey", and directs him to a rest stop Burger King where he runs into Sarah. Despite their flirtation, she remains pessimistic about relationships. Ready to go their separate ways, they discover they both rented cars from the unusual company. When Sarah's car refuses to start, David's GPS instructs him to pick her up, and they set off on their journey together.
The GPS guides them to their first stop, a mysterious door in the woods. Stepping through, they find themselves in a lighthouse in Canada, which David once visited. They return to the car and reach their next strange door, which Sarah recognizes as the back entrance to her favorite art museum. Inside, they explore the paintings she often visited with her mother, who died when she was in college. Back in the car, Sarah remembers an enjoyable road trip with her estranged father, and believes she is unable to stop herself from hurting people.
Their next destination is a greenhouse where they find the doors to David's high school. Inside, David relives a day as his fifteen-year-old self, starring in the school production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, with Sarah and his parents in the audience. He confesses his feelings for a costar and relives her rejection, but derails the show by confronting her onstage with hard truths about the future. Sarah joins the musical number instead, as the entire auditorium sings her and David on their way.
Driving into the night, Sarah urges David not to pursue her. The car suddenly stops, and they find themselves in a black box theater with the doors to a hospital. Inside, Sarah confronts her guilt at sleeping with her college professor instead of being with her mother, who died at the hospital alone. While Sarah grieves at her mother's bedside, David comforts his own father, who is anxious about the premature birth of his son. Driving off with presents from the gift shop, Sarah changes clothes in the backseat as David reveals his mother briefly left the family when he was a child, and they agree that life can feel too short.
Taken to a mountain overlook where they gaze out over the entire planet, David and Sarah imagine having gone to the wedding together, and share a kiss. They arrive at a door on a roadside billboard, which leads to a café; David is confronted by his former fiancée to explain himself for ending their engagement, while Sarah is faced with an ex-boyfriend she suddenly abandoned. Each is forced to admit their romantic failings, and return to the road only to hit a deer, but they escape unharmed while the car is destroyed. Sarah suggests they end the journey before they can hurt each other. David tells her he loves her, but she insists they are only experiencing a fantasy.
They spend a lonely night at the nearby Timely Inn, and the car is fixed. David drops Sarah off at her car and they part ways, but are each taken to their childhood homes. As his own father, David comforts his fifteen-year-old self, while Sarah relives a happy night with her mother as a twelve-year-old. David returns the car, amusing the Cashier and Mechanic by suggesting they are matching customers with their soulmates. Changing her mind, Sarah arrives at David's address and declares that she loves him. They kiss, and walk together through the front door.
In December 2020, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, written by Seth Reiss, was featured on the annual Black List.[5] In February 2024, it was announced that Kogonada would direct the film with Reiss producing. Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell were in conversation to star.[6] Later that month, Deadline reported that Sony Pictures had tied up at European Film Market a deal in the $50M range for the movie, described as "one of the market's hottest scripts".[7] In April 2024, Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and newcomer Lucy Thomas joined the cast.[8]
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey was first released in the Philippines on September 17, 2025, and in Albania on September 18, 2025.[17] In the United States, the film was released on September 19, 2025,[18] after being previously scheduled for release on May 9, 2025.[19]
Reception
Box office
As of October5,2025[update], A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has grossed $7 million in the United States and Canada, and $11 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $18 million.[3]
In the United States and Canada, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey was released alongside Him, and was projected to gross $8–10 million from 3,300 theaters in its opening weekend.[20] The film made $1.4 million on its first day, and went on to debut to just $3.5 million, finishing in sixth place.[21][22]
Critical response
For Deadline, critic Pete Hammond writes that the film is "an uneven blend of introspective drama and high-concept fantasy that feels a bit lost in translation and doesn’t quite work the way it was intended" while also pointing out that it's "slow" and "overly talky."[23]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 37% of 178 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Too solemn to have much fun with its high concept while also too saccharine for its wistful themes to resonate, this well-meaning odyssey never quite lives up to its title."[24]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[25] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it 2.5 out of five stars, with 44% saying they would definitely recommend the film.[22]
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