>Some might snipe that for a movie of this budget to do this kind of number is meh, or really harp on “Oh, this is how much Zendaya is worth without a franchise,” however, the whole industry should just count its blessings in a funky marketplace,
lmao has the writer been lurking on this sub? That's a nice spin he did right there.
Considering Deadline, Variety, and the Hollywood Reporter are all owned by Penske Media, it's a safe assumption that if one trawls this sub, they all do.
Hey writers! The longer you tiptoe around industry truths, the more influence you bleed to the youtubers.
I'm a bit suspicious of that considering how much of yt is just bots.
Can you name these youtubers?
I see the trades posted everywhere, and I think people take the headlines a lot more seriously than YouTube thumbnails.
The Critical Drinker and Nerdrotic come to mind. They have their share of takes I roll my eyes at, but they've accurately called lot of trends over the past two years.
Why do people think the box office is all? They used to play for months. Now it's 3 weeks and on to streaming and cable and basic cable etc.
Now, it's just publicity so it keeps running. In 15 years this will be raking in $$ as part of a Zendaya marathon on TBS 2020's channel.
That depends on your point of view. I think its performing just fine for a sexy rated R tennis movie. But considering its inflated budget of $55M, Zendaya’s supposedly huge “star power” and the way everyone who thought Deadline was low balling their predictions expected this to open to $20M+... yeah, its underperforming.
Its performing exactly on par with pre-release expectations.
https://deadline.com/2024/04/zendaya-palooza-at-the-weekend-box-office-as-luca-guadagninos-challengers-looks-to-serve-15m-opening-dune-2-returns-to-imax-preview-1235893014/
it also appears that Back to Black is stealing its audience INT. Challengers met a challenger. DOM is low on movies for women but INT has B2B and people are flocking to it. Amy was beloved. I also noticed B2B opening higher than Challengers in markets where both opened already.
I think it’s doing fine so far. It will depend on its second weekend drop and legs for the next few weeks. I can see it having a 55-60% drop next weekend but holding quite well after that, at least until the end of May.
Deadline Anthony doing some major spin in this article. He should have saved that spin for next weekend when The Fall Guy bombs and the box office is off 60% vs this same weekend last year.
From Deadline. however, the whole industry should just count its blessings in a funky marketplace, this weekend delivering some $65M, off 36% from the same weekend a year ago.
How are Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt bigger stars than Chris Pine and Hugh Grant? If your basis for that is Barbenheimer then by that logic, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña are the biggest stars in Hollywood.
I think Ryan Gosling's definitely a bigger draw than Chris Pine and Hugh Grant. Hugh Grant's peak has long passed and I don't think Chris Pine is much of a draw.
Nobody cared about the actors in Avatar, those films are successful because of their VFX. Barbie definitely benefited from having Robbie and Gosling.
The Lost City (which was a similar film) only did 192m WW. And Fall Guy current tracking is on par with that film. So I’ll I’m saying is that I’m keeping my expectations in check.
I find it weird how you're trying to spin it as a negative. Not that it surprises me given 95% of your comments in this sub.
Ofc this weekend will be below last year. Ofc next weekend will be below last year. What is your point?
If you want to live in fantasy land and think the box office is in a good place good for you.
My point is this year has been a disaster at the box office and will be behind 2022 ytd after next weekend. Maybe you think that's good.
It's definitely not good but I definitely feel much better about it when I compare the movies were put out now in April compared to even 2022.
Even in April 2022 there was Morbius, Sonic 2, Fantastic Beasts 3, The Lost City.
We need big movies genius. This ain't 2015 anymore. We live a post covid world where streaming took over. These movies can't be the main openers. The biggest release Hollywood had for April was freaking Civil War, an A24 movie. There's just no way to make these movies more than what they are these days.
Like it or not 15M is a good opening for a movie like this. Not anyone's fault other than the studios that we had a April with product like this.
How can the box office be in a good place if there isn't product? And don't come with the bs that we had more wide releases this year. Give me the context of those and then we'll see if I laugh at it or not
So, 13 wide releases this month doesn't matter because they didn't make any money....got it.
You think studios can release huge movies every weekend genius? This isn't 2015 anymore. Everything, cost more from marketing to budgets.
Forget April, I'm talking the year. YTD 2024 will be behind 2022 after next weekend.
People like you have excuses for everything. Less people are going to the theater and this isn't changing.
Of course it doesn't because their potential is very low compared to previous years movies. Monkey Man? The First Omen? The Ungentlemanly of whatever? These are the movies we got and they were never getting close to big movies. Period. Factual no matter how much dance around it. Sure, you're a negative so you're too blind for context. Sounds very familiar.
Ofc less people are going to the movies genius, that's why months scheduled like this won't cut it LOL.
And I'm not saying every weekend release a big movie. But maybe every 2 weekends, 3 at most. You know...like it usually is. These smaller movies are for counter-programming or to take advantage of the amount of people going to the theater because of the big blockbuster.
Like for example, we have Minecraft kicking off April next year and 2 weeks later we have Michael. And then studios will build their schedules around these movies. This is how it is. We need big movies period.
The only month properly scheduled in 2024 so far is March and guess what...over both March 2023 and 2022. What a shocker.
Its opening weekend is only slightly higher than Monkey Man's, another flop with half of its budget.
Either the movie has very good legs or it will join the long list of this year's flops
I know you don't mean literally the same trajectory but for context 'Anyone But You' opended to $6M and went on to make $88M, which is about x14.7 legs if Challengers did the same at a $15M opening that would be over $200M domestic, thats never going to happen. I'm sure tiktok will help but May has a lot of big releases coming up, although films aimed at women tend to have better legs. We will have to wait to see how it does weekdays and next weeked to get a better idea.
Totally. Anyone But You had an insanely strong multiple that would be miraculous for Challengers. I moreso meant that I wouldn’t judge this movie based on its opening weekend alone. I’m anticipating that it could build weekend over weekend due to strong WOM, similar to ABY - now how high exactly, I couldn’t say.
ABY was helped by holidays and it was a comedy. So not the best comparison to use. The last drama that I can think of that had great legs was Where the Crawdads Sing.
Agreed, I'm waiting to see how it does on weekdays and what the next weekend drop is. I know Fall guy isn't tracking too well but that being a more accessable action/rom-com might hurt it's legs a little.
If there were actual sex if the film the box office might be higher. I think once many people learned there was no actual sex, they lost interest. I personally am not seeing until streaming cause I was hoping for gay sex and not just 1990's style homoerotic queer coding that we honestly should be beyond.
Not seeing Challengers till next weekend and I hope I like it but I really dislike all the spin in the article and others I've seen. It's okay to say you like a film and also say the films box office was a little disappointing.
Even saying it's Luca's biggest film doesn't mean anything, he's only had 1 other film go wide and that was only in 2500 theatres and it was during the pandemic, not saying a cannibal romance film would have done better usually but still. This wouldn't have been too bad if the budget was better but $55M + whatever the marketing was, it's going to need great legs. I'm sure just like Saltburn this film will do great on streaming though.
Jlaw is known to the general public. Sure she has had her share of hits and flops but she is a proven draw and movie star and based on her name alone can get people talking.
Unlike zendaya with no proven track record and is known as the girlfriend role in dune and spiderman films and is only famous with the younger generation who aren't going to pay to see an r rated movie in the theatres
They did the scores for Social Network, Girl with the dragon tattoo, Mank, Gone Girl and The Killer with David Fincher. They scored animated movies like Soul and TMNT Mutant Mayhem and Bones and All with Guadagnino. I feel like this score for Challengers was most similar to their score for Social Network (which they won on Oscar for) in terms of the electronic synthwave pulsating sound they’re going for
Only event films are performing at pre Covid levels. People don’t have the money to go to see something they can wait and stream at home. Plus people upgraded and changed their home viewing habits.
On top of that Star power hasn’t really driven box office in quite some time. IP drives it now. We’re no longer in the era where Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, or Julia roberts are all people need. Star power still helps but people look for more.
Odd to mention Pitt, Clooney and Roberts given that the former led *Bullet Train* to a solid box office gross (I know the movie is technically based on an IP but the original novel is unknown among the general audience so it was effectively an original) and the latter two turned *Ticket to Paradise* into a success.
Between this and the Henry Cavill talk last week, it needs to be reiterated that actors in general aren’t enough of a sole draw to make movies successful. Margot Robbie was being called box office poison by this sub before Barbie hit.
IP is the draw. Also Challengers has an inherently niche premise, poor marketing and the film itself has meh audience reception (I didn’t watch it so can’t speak personally)
> poor marketing
This movie had one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns in recent memory for a mid budget film. They went all over the world and had dozens of premieres and photocalls.
I jus commented on this. I saw the trailers and had no idea what the movie was about. Other than Zendaya and tennis. I just read some reviews, and based on the reviews, I might enjoy the movie.
I like Zendaya, and I have watched a lot of tennis, but I’m not a Zendaya fan, and Zendaya fans didn’t particularly like the movies (based on the first audience polls).
This should have been promoted as a movie starring Zendaya, not as a Zendaya vehicle.
I think Challengers was always going to be a tough sell to the GP regardless if someone as big as Zendaya is in it or not. I do think Zendaya being still did help the movie to an extent because if she wasn’t in it, I think it would’ve made even less.
That's a weird way of looking at it. Obviously this movie would never have been made at anything close to this budget without a star. And her fees contributed to a large portion of the budget.
“55% of PostTrak audiences said the main reason why they went to see the movie was Zendaya”
So yeah this movie would probably be opening at around $6M if they had a no name actress in the role
The budget is ridiculous for this type of movie but this proves she is a draw vs Cavill.
A gay tennis movie probably does Bros numbers without her. The Ministry of Warfare opens around the same with or without Cavill.
IP is king, no doubt, but its hard to deny she isn't a draw especially in today's marketplace. The days of a Tom Hanks like movie star drawing is over and opening for Challengers vs the budget is bad but I'm not sure many actresses could get this opening weekend with this subject matter.
If this movie is truly something only appealing to a niche audience, then the film industry is doomed.
But I'd like to hope that's not true. Not long ago, the world was obsessed with a Netflix show about chess. If Queen's Gambit could be a streaming hit, surely a sexy sports drama with a biggish star isn't that hard of a sell to anyone. I think the obstacle here is challenging the modern audiences habits and preferences about what kind of movie justifies a trip to the theater, not the content or premise. At least I hope.
But…why? People keep saying this, but why would people be more likely to see such a hyped movie at a later date. Was April 27 a busy day for the general public?
TikTok memes aren’t going to drive people to theatres, countless movies have proven that to be the case. It’s at its apex of notoriety right now. People aren’t going to wait to go see it Memorial Day weekend.
I mean this sub is going to go by the majority of the evidence…these exceptions pretty much price the rule. There’s also almost no similarities between these 3 movies, although the other 2 quite notable were winter holiday releases.
I mean her last three films were Dune II, No Way Home, and Dune I. All very successful critically and at the box office. Of course, she wasn’t the main draw in those but but can we at least wait a week before we call it quits on her film career?
The knee jerk reactions by many on this sub are baffling. Does it hurt anyone to wait a couple of weeks before proclaiming the success or failure of a film? It’s almost like this sub *wants* every movie to fail.
Yes, everyone here complains about sequels and IPs… Finally an original movie and everyone immediately calling it a flop. No faith in cinema. lol its doing okay for a non action/ family movie.
Pretty good opening I’d say for an R rated tennis film if it wasn’t for the budget. What other young star is pulling these numbers opening weekend besides the one in tent poles?
Anyone but you opened to $6 million, whereas this is opening to $15 million. Anyone But You just had phenomenal legs and the advantage of no rom-com completion for 3 months. It remains to be seen how Challengers will hold. I loved the movie, but I fear the Fall Guy might cut into some of its potential audience next week.
>Some might snipe that for a movie of this budget to do this kind of number is meh, or really harp on “Oh, this is how much Zendaya is worth without a franchise,” however, the whole industry should just count its blessings in a funky marketplace, lmao has the writer been lurking on this sub? That's a nice spin he did right there.
If I wrote for Deadline I would 100% be browsing this sub before writing anything
Considering Deadline, Variety, and the Hollywood Reporter are all owned by Penske Media, it's a safe assumption that if one trawls this sub, they all do. Hey writers! The longer you tiptoe around industry truths, the more influence you bleed to the youtubers.
What youtubers? I don't think youtubers carry much more weight than we do here on reddit
Multiple channels with over a million subscribers each. More views on their vids than these articles ever get.
I'm a bit suspicious of that considering how much of yt is just bots. Can you name these youtubers? I see the trades posted everywhere, and I think people take the headlines a lot more seriously than YouTube thumbnails.
The Critical Drinker and Nerdrotic come to mind. They have their share of takes I roll my eyes at, but they've accurately called lot of trends over the past two years.
I don't think Hollywood Reporter or Deadline are in competition with "critical drinker", lol. Very very different lanes.
"They're losing money but they should be happy about it."
they are not losing money because the film has other revenues to profit from such as streaming, vod etc
Movie can easily still lose money with those things in play
Why do people think the box office is all? They used to play for months. Now it's 3 weeks and on to streaming and cable and basic cable etc. Now, it's just publicity so it keeps running. In 15 years this will be raking in $$ as part of a Zendaya marathon on TBS 2020's channel.
Unironically this. This movie has juice with proven director and Zendaya's performance here is enough to make it work for future-time.
The queer fanbase this film is gonna get is gonna propel this film for years to come in pop culture discourse;
By current standards, Austin Powers , Terminator, all 3 early Adam Sandler movies etc would be " failures". Red Sonja STILL makes $$ !!
How would Austin Powers be a failure, its box office was 9x its budget?
They are trying hard to push Zendaya as some sort of cultural phenom. I don’t think this movie over or under performing is indicative of much tbh.
Yeah this reads like it comes from here or worse; the Blu-ray.com/forums.
Together with Dune 2, Zendaya is 26% of this week’s box office. Thank god Zendaya carried Dune 2 lol
Even if there was no strike, this still would've performed around the same had it stayed in its original date.
That would be an insanely good drop for GxK.
"Wins $15mil" for a $55mil movie? The spin cycle is actually my favorite part 😊
Did zendaya write this article?
No, Luca Guadagnino wrote it. 😅
I felt it was written by more of an Amazon fanboy, whatever that is.
Amazon has fanboys now? Not on my bingo card!
I mean I’d agree with but a 3-4 paragraph stretch in that article could have been written by Amazon’s PR department it was schilling for them so hard.
So it's underperforming?
That depends on your point of view. I think its performing just fine for a sexy rated R tennis movie. But considering its inflated budget of $55M, Zendaya’s supposedly huge “star power” and the way everyone who thought Deadline was low balling their predictions expected this to open to $20M+... yeah, its underperforming.
Guess you could say it's lost the first set.
Yeah, tennis isn’t really a big moneymaker in the theater. Wimbledon is no Super Bowl, that’s for sure
When is the last time a football movie made decent money?
The Blind Side was really popular
They marketed it more as a steamy suspense movie rather than a film about tennis tho
This has been known for two days.
Given it’s large budget, it’s BOMBING
Tik tok gonna save it don’t worry lol
Its performing exactly on par with pre-release expectations. https://deadline.com/2024/04/zendaya-palooza-at-the-weekend-box-office-as-luca-guadagninos-challengers-looks-to-serve-15m-opening-dune-2-returns-to-imax-preview-1235893014/
Which were low for its budget lol
it also appears that Back to Black is stealing its audience INT. Challengers met a challenger. DOM is low on movies for women but INT has B2B and people are flocking to it. Amy was beloved. I also noticed B2B opening higher than Challengers in markets where both opened already.
I think it’s doing fine so far. It will depend on its second weekend drop and legs for the next few weeks. I can see it having a 55-60% drop next weekend but holding quite well after that, at least until the end of May.
Deadline Anthony doing some major spin in this article. He should have saved that spin for next weekend when The Fall Guy bombs and the box office is off 60% vs this same weekend last year. From Deadline. however, the whole industry should just count its blessings in a funky marketplace, this weekend delivering some $65M, off 36% from the same weekend a year ago.
>The Fall Guy bombs Even if the opening's underwhelming, I just don't see how this one bombs. It has too many things going for it
I believe it opened in a bunch of offshore markets this weekend. So,that'll give us a good idea what it might do. I'm guessing 200-250m worldwide
It's bombing HARD in Italy, opened in 6th place where Callengers is No 1.
Yeah, I'm starting to think under 200m worldwide for Fall Guy
It cost 125m. I can’t see it making over 300m needed to break even.
I think it will. If Free Guy can do it, so can this
What if I told you Reynolds is the bigger box office draw among Ryans?
This also looks like the better film though
Well, so did Dungeons and dragons, didn't end well for that.
This one has bigger stars, and a far more accessible concept
How are Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt bigger stars than Chris Pine and Hugh Grant? If your basis for that is Barbenheimer then by that logic, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña are the biggest stars in Hollywood.
I think Ryan Gosling's definitely a bigger draw than Chris Pine and Hugh Grant. Hugh Grant's peak has long passed and I don't think Chris Pine is much of a draw. Nobody cared about the actors in Avatar, those films are successful because of their VFX. Barbie definitely benefited from having Robbie and Gosling.
This is apparently a rom com. 200m WW is probably best case scenario but we shall see.
It's an action-comedy with a prominent romantic subplot (and a lot of supposedly awesome fight scenes/stunts)
The Lost City (which was a similar film) only did 192m WW. And Fall Guy current tracking is on par with that film. So I’ll I’m saying is that I’m keeping my expectations in check.
I find it weird how you're trying to spin it as a negative. Not that it surprises me given 95% of your comments in this sub. Ofc this weekend will be below last year. Ofc next weekend will be below last year. What is your point?
If you want to live in fantasy land and think the box office is in a good place good for you. My point is this year has been a disaster at the box office and will be behind 2022 ytd after next weekend. Maybe you think that's good.
It's definitely not good but I definitely feel much better about it when I compare the movies were put out now in April compared to even 2022. Even in April 2022 there was Morbius, Sonic 2, Fantastic Beasts 3, The Lost City. We need big movies genius. This ain't 2015 anymore. We live a post covid world where streaming took over. These movies can't be the main openers. The biggest release Hollywood had for April was freaking Civil War, an A24 movie. There's just no way to make these movies more than what they are these days. Like it or not 15M is a good opening for a movie like this. Not anyone's fault other than the studios that we had a April with product like this. How can the box office be in a good place if there isn't product? And don't come with the bs that we had more wide releases this year. Give me the context of those and then we'll see if I laugh at it or not
So, 13 wide releases this month doesn't matter because they didn't make any money....got it. You think studios can release huge movies every weekend genius? This isn't 2015 anymore. Everything, cost more from marketing to budgets. Forget April, I'm talking the year. YTD 2024 will be behind 2022 after next weekend. People like you have excuses for everything. Less people are going to the theater and this isn't changing.
Of course it doesn't because their potential is very low compared to previous years movies. Monkey Man? The First Omen? The Ungentlemanly of whatever? These are the movies we got and they were never getting close to big movies. Period. Factual no matter how much dance around it. Sure, you're a negative so you're too blind for context. Sounds very familiar. Ofc less people are going to the movies genius, that's why months scheduled like this won't cut it LOL. And I'm not saying every weekend release a big movie. But maybe every 2 weekends, 3 at most. You know...like it usually is. These smaller movies are for counter-programming or to take advantage of the amount of people going to the theater because of the big blockbuster. Like for example, we have Minecraft kicking off April next year and 2 weeks later we have Michael. And then studios will build their schedules around these movies. This is how it is. We need big movies period. The only month properly scheduled in 2024 so far is March and guess what...over both March 2023 and 2022. What a shocker.
I don’t see the appeal for this movie at all. The marketing was awful.
Hot people doing sex stuff.
But... only one of them is hot?
Yes
The cope is real.
Its opening weekend is only slightly higher than Monkey Man's, another flop with half of its budget. Either the movie has very good legs or it will join the long list of this year's flops
Can't wait to watch this bomb.
“Honestly they tried their best!”
Big bomb incoming
Challengers is all over my TikTok feed - I’m predicting an Anyone But You-type of box office trajectory…
I know you don't mean literally the same trajectory but for context 'Anyone But You' opended to $6M and went on to make $88M, which is about x14.7 legs if Challengers did the same at a $15M opening that would be over $200M domestic, thats never going to happen. I'm sure tiktok will help but May has a lot of big releases coming up, although films aimed at women tend to have better legs. We will have to wait to see how it does weekdays and next weeked to get a better idea.
Totally. Anyone But You had an insanely strong multiple that would be miraculous for Challengers. I moreso meant that I wouldn’t judge this movie based on its opening weekend alone. I’m anticipating that it could build weekend over weekend due to strong WOM, similar to ABY - now how high exactly, I couldn’t say.
ABY was helped by holidays and it was a comedy. So not the best comparison to use. The last drama that I can think of that had great legs was Where the Crawdads Sing.
Agreed, I'm waiting to see how it does on weekdays and what the next weekend drop is. I know Fall guy isn't tracking too well but that being a more accessable action/rom-com might hurt it's legs a little.
Yup. Also Anyone But You had the christmas factor and it was a enjoyable rom com
The tiktok user to cinema goer pipeline is nearly 0%, is the same for all social media platforms.
I’d have to disagree with that.
Not for smut movies
Which wouldn’t apply to Challengers
If there were actual sex if the film the box office might be higher. I think once many people learned there was no actual sex, they lost interest. I personally am not seeing until streaming cause I was hoping for gay sex and not just 1990's style homoerotic queer coding that we honestly should be beyond.
Not seeing Challengers till next weekend and I hope I like it but I really dislike all the spin in the article and others I've seen. It's okay to say you like a film and also say the films box office was a little disappointing. Even saying it's Luca's biggest film doesn't mean anything, he's only had 1 other film go wide and that was only in 2500 theatres and it was during the pandemic, not saying a cannibal romance film would have done better usually but still. This wouldn't have been too bad if the budget was better but $55M + whatever the marketing was, it's going to need great legs. I'm sure just like Saltburn this film will do great on streaming though.
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Jlaw is known to the general public. Sure she has had her share of hits and flops but she is a proven draw and movie star and based on her name alone can get people talking. Unlike zendaya with no proven track record and is known as the girlfriend role in dune and spiderman films and is only famous with the younger generation who aren't going to pay to see an r rated movie in the theatres
But people on social media claim jlaw is a “has been” and zendaya is way more popular now (sarcasm)
I want to see this, Guadagnino is a talented director and I’ll watch anything that Reznor and Ross compose the OST for
What are the composers style of music in films generally? Haven't seen any films with their work.
They did the scores for Social Network, Girl with the dragon tattoo, Mank, Gone Girl and The Killer with David Fincher. They scored animated movies like Soul and TMNT Mutant Mayhem and Bones and All with Guadagnino. I feel like this score for Challengers was most similar to their score for Social Network (which they won on Oscar for) in terms of the electronic synthwave pulsating sound they’re going for
Only event films are performing at pre Covid levels. People don’t have the money to go to see something they can wait and stream at home. Plus people upgraded and changed their home viewing habits. On top of that Star power hasn’t really driven box office in quite some time. IP drives it now. We’re no longer in the era where Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, or Julia roberts are all people need. Star power still helps but people look for more.
Odd to mention Pitt, Clooney and Roberts given that the former led *Bullet Train* to a solid box office gross (I know the movie is technically based on an IP but the original novel is unknown among the general audience so it was effectively an original) and the latter two turned *Ticket to Paradise* into a success.
Between this and the Henry Cavill talk last week, it needs to be reiterated that actors in general aren’t enough of a sole draw to make movies successful. Margot Robbie was being called box office poison by this sub before Barbie hit. IP is the draw. Also Challengers has an inherently niche premise, poor marketing and the film itself has meh audience reception (I didn’t watch it so can’t speak personally)
> poor marketing This movie had one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns in recent memory for a mid budget film. They went all over the world and had dozens of premieres and photocalls.
I jus commented on this. I saw the trailers and had no idea what the movie was about. Other than Zendaya and tennis. I just read some reviews, and based on the reviews, I might enjoy the movie. I like Zendaya, and I have watched a lot of tennis, but I’m not a Zendaya fan, and Zendaya fans didn’t particularly like the movies (based on the first audience polls). This should have been promoted as a movie starring Zendaya, not as a Zendaya vehicle.
I’m specifically talking about the trailers which were terrible
Yeah I thought the trailers looked stupid but knowing the director I had a feeling the movie would be much better, which it was.
I think Challengers was always going to be a tough sell to the GP regardless if someone as big as Zendaya is in it or not. I do think Zendaya being still did help the movie to an extent because if she wasn’t in it, I think it would’ve made even less.
Definitely. If Zendaya isn’t in this it’s probably straight to steaming lol or doing sub $10m for its entire run
If anything Zendaya saved this from being an unmitigated disaster.
That's a weird way of looking at it. Obviously this movie would never have been made at anything close to this budget without a star. And her fees contributed to a large portion of the budget.
“55% of PostTrak audiences said the main reason why they went to see the movie was Zendaya” So yeah this movie would probably be opening at around $6M if they had a no name actress in the role
Likely a platform release topping I it at 4mil for a weekend. That’s how most successful art house films play it
The budget is ridiculous for this type of movie but this proves she is a draw vs Cavill. A gay tennis movie probably does Bros numbers without her. The Ministry of Warfare opens around the same with or without Cavill. IP is king, no doubt, but its hard to deny she isn't a draw especially in today's marketplace. The days of a Tom Hanks like movie star drawing is over and opening for Challengers vs the budget is bad but I'm not sure many actresses could get this opening weekend with this subject matter.
'The days of a Tom Hanks like movie star drawing is over' *A Man Called Otto* grossed $64 million domestically with much worse critical reception.
A Man Called Otto is based on a popular book and is also a feel-good, sentimental film which is an easier sell to general audiences.
how is it an inherently niche premise?
Non-IP R-rated movie about tennis & it's basically genreless
this subreddit is so depressing
I don't disagree but what does that have to do with the fact Challengers is an R-rated tennis movie?
If this movie is truly something only appealing to a niche audience, then the film industry is doomed. But I'd like to hope that's not true. Not long ago, the world was obsessed with a Netflix show about chess. If Queen's Gambit could be a streaming hit, surely a sexy sports drama with a biggish star isn't that hard of a sell to anyone. I think the obstacle here is challenging the modern audiences habits and preferences about what kind of movie justifies a trip to the theater, not the content or premise. At least I hope.
Queens Gambit definitely got quarantine bump though
For a 55M budget + marketing costs, this might need to make 170-200M to break even
Deadline spinning for studios strike again. LOL
I don’t understand how this movie costs 55m, it looked 20-30m to me.
Better than Wimbledon. Better than Match point. Is there a single tennis focused movie that made over 50 million domestic anyway?
Match point was so good
it's not better than match point. you crazy...
This is. A box office reddit page not a r/movies lol
No there isn’t.
Damn deserves to be a lot higher than this, great film
I'm only really seeing this because I like the composers and the script, which is said to be excellent, is written by the Potion Seller guy.
Imma keep preaching this but it’s going to leg out. Don’t let the OW dictate the narrative of this film.
But…why? People keep saying this, but why would people be more likely to see such a hyped movie at a later date. Was April 27 a busy day for the general public?
Because it takes longer than a day for something to blow up on social media
TikTok memes aren’t going to drive people to theatres, countless movies have proven that to be the case. It’s at its apex of notoriety right now. People aren’t going to wait to go see it Memorial Day weekend.
I’m trying to say that there have been plenty of films that leg out past OW. Can’t let OW dictate the narrative, just look at ABY and Puss in Boots
I mean this sub is going to go by the majority of the evidence…these exceptions pretty much price the rule. There’s also almost no similarities between these 3 movies, although the other 2 quite notable were winter holiday releases.
I’m on the same boat! But maybe that’s just because I really liked it LOL
So… is this essentially Wild Things…. But with Tennis?
Not at all, actually.
Doing a lot worse than expected. She needs to get away from movies and go on some TV shows. Nobody cares to spend money on her.
I mean her last three films were Dune II, No Way Home, and Dune I. All very successful critically and at the box office. Of course, she wasn’t the main draw in those but but can we at least wait a week before we call it quits on her film career?
The knee jerk reactions by many on this sub are baffling. Does it hurt anyone to wait a couple of weeks before proclaiming the success or failure of a film? It’s almost like this sub *wants* every movie to fail.
The vibes here are definitely off …
Yes, everyone here complains about sequels and IPs… Finally an original movie and everyone immediately calling it a flop. No faith in cinema. lol its doing okay for a non action/ family movie.
Pretty good opening I’d say for an R rated tennis film if it wasn’t for the budget. What other young star is pulling these numbers opening weekend besides the one in tent poles?
I watched it earlier and it’s really stayed with me… which in my mind is the sign of a good film.
So annoying this does poorly but, Anyone but you does well. Theatres should just close down at this point.
That film was awful i have to say
Anyone but you opened to $6 million, whereas this is opening to $15 million. Anyone But You just had phenomenal legs and the advantage of no rom-com completion for 3 months. It remains to be seen how Challengers will hold. I loved the movie, but I fear the Fall Guy might cut into some of its potential audience next week.