But the dismal $7.5 million opening of Focus Features' "Black Bag" shows the chicken-and-egg problem that Hollywood faces when it comes to building audiences for movies that don't have a well-known IP attached.

“ Black Bag ,” an elegant, quick-witted new thriller that finds Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender playing married spies, isn’t the pair’s first time together on screen. That honor goes to 2017’s “Song to Song,” one of Terrence Malick’s most intangible and head-scratching offerings — though the two stars can barely recall that experience.