Box office Triangle of Sadness grossed $4.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $28.3 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $32.9 million. In the United States,
Triangle of Sadness opened in 10 locations in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco to a debut of $210,074, for a per theatre average of $21,007. In its second weekend, it grossed $657,051 on 31 screens. In its third weekend, it grossed $600,000 on 280 screens, finishing tenth at the box office. In its fourth weekend, it grossed $548,999 on 610 screens, dropping out of the box office top ten.
Critical response 's performance garnered critical acclaim. Alysha Prasad of One Room With A View called it "Utterly unhinged in the best way possible, guaranteed to elicit enough laughter to make your stomach ache, while also leaving you with plenty to think about afterwards." David Kaplan of Kaplan vs. Kaplan praised the ensemble cast as "completely compelling, even if some of the characters are unsavory." Aaron Neuwirth of We Live Entertainment described it as containing "what’s likely the grossest set piece I’ve seen in a movie awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival." Gabi Zeitsman of Channel 24 (South Africa) commented, "if you loved
White Lotus and satire aimed at the beautiful and rich, this is a definite must-watch. The fact that it won the Palme d'Or is in itself almost satirical..." "Don't go in expecting art-house intellectualism," wrote
Kyle Smith of the
Wall Street Journal, "The movie is as loaded with fun as it is with social implications." Paul Byrnes of the
Sydney Morning Herald commented, "For Östlund, subtlety is overrated. Triangle of Sadness shows us why he has a point. It’s a spectacular demolition of modern life, a disruptor movie full of ideas and nuance, as violent in its way as a Pieter Bruegel painting."
Kevin Maher of
The Times detected more nuance in the film, however, stating: "Yes, the metaphor can seem very on-the-nose: the super rich, in this economic climate especially, are obscene and repulsive! But it's a film of great subtlety (really) and benefits from multiple viewings."
Richard Brody, in a critical review for
The New Yorker, described
Triangle of Sadness as "a movie of targeted demagogy that pitches its facile political stances to the preconceptions of the
art-house audience; far from deepening those ideas or challenging those assumptions, it flatters the like-minded viewership while swaggering with the filmmaker’s presumption of freethinking, subversive audacity." Brody described Östlund's direction as "precise but stiff" and criticised the film's emphasis on social commentary: "[Östlund's] keen observations are submerged in his efforts at social criticism and political philosophy." However, Brody commended the cast performances—particularly Dean's, of which he wrote: "If nothing else, the movie would have assured her stardom; there’s no telling how many characters and films her death foreclosed before their conception."
Armond White, in a critical review for
National Review, talks about the substitution of concepts in
Triangle of Sadness: "Östlund extends his Euro-Marxism into a second-rate allegory about third-world exploitation: An insulting subplot features the ship's Filipino toilet manager (Dolly De Leon) turning the tables on the rich, feckless whites, yet emulating their decadence (
Parasite, Part II). Östlund bungles the political, spiritual, and moral lessons of such classics about chaos as Luis Buñuel's
Exterminating Angel, Antonioni's ''
L'Avventura'', and Godard's
Weekend." White sums up his review calling Östlund "just a misanthrope and a fraud." Filmmaker
Edgar Wright praised the film, saying that it "has plenty to say about the obscene gap in the living wage but is also smart and witty entertainment, brilliantly structured, perfectly performed and masterfully directed to create a purely theatrical experience from start to end." In 2023,
MovieWeb ranked it number 10 on its list of "20 Movies That Require Your Full Attention From Start to Finish," writing "If you are a fan of movies that tell its story through multiple parts or take a drastic turn in direction but also include a wicked sense of humor, then
Triangle of Sadness is for you ... This film has such an unpredictable, disgusting, over-the-top hilarious change in direction that if you stop paying attention for even a second, you will probably question if the same movie is still playing." In 2025, filmmaker
Sean Baker and actress
Naomi Ackie both cited the film as among their favourites of the 21st century.
Accolades == Notes ==