“Challengers,” a steamy tennis drama starring Zendaya and directed by Luca Guadagnino, is poised to lead the domestic box office without much in the way of competition.
The film, from Amazon MGM, is projected to collect $12 million to $15 million from 3,400 North American theaters in its opening weekend.
Last weekend, “Civil War” topped the box office for the second consecutive frame with $11.1 million and has grossed $70 million globally to date.
Overall, the domestic box office is 20% behind the same point in 2023, according to Comscore.
The steamy, R-rated “Challengers” was originally slated to premiere at 2023’s Venice Film Festival and hit the big screen last fall.
“Challengers” carries a significant price tag of roughly $55 million, so Amazon MGM has a lot riding on the box office.
Warner Bros. is distributing “Challengers” at the international box office, where the film has generated $765,000 from two smaller markets.
Zendaya stars in the film as a former tennis prodigy who retires after an injury and later marries a tennis champion on a losing streak.
There’s not much of a match, but game, set. With little competition, Zendaya’s seductive tennis drama “Challengers,” helmed by Luca Guadagnino, looks set to top the domestic box office.
It is anticipated that the film, from Amazon MGM, will make between $12 and $15 million during its opening weekend at 3,400 theaters in North America. It’s the only big new film this weekend, so even though those are low expectations for a national release, it should have no problem unseating A24’s “Civil War,” the current front-runner. With a total of $11.1 million in revenue last weekend, “Civil War” topped the box office for the second straight weekend and has now made $70 million worldwide. Comscore estimates that overall, the domestic box office is 20% behind where it was at this time in 2023.
The sultry, R-rated “Challengers” was supposed to make its big-screen debut last fall and open at the Venice Film Festival in 2023. The strike, however, kept Zendaya and her co-stars, “West Side Story” actor Mike Faist and “The Crown” breakout Josh O’Connor, from being able to promote the film, so the studio decided to push back its release until spring. Zendaya’s tennis-themed red carpet appearances have been making headlines lately. It might therefore be worthwhile to postpone the film, at least in terms of raising awareness among the twentysomethings who make up its target audience. Amazon MGM has a lot riding on the box office performance of “Challengers,” which has a high price tag of approximately $55 million.
It is a credit to Zendaya’s star power that “Challengers,” an R-rated drama with an arthouse sheen, is receiving a nationwide release (instead of the platform rollout that typically accompanies indie films) and may begin to target mid-teens. Naturally, Amazon MGM is not an independent distributor and has substantial financial resources. On the other hand, Guadagnino rarely makes mainstream films. The 2017 movie “Call Me By Your Name,” which was his biggest hit, only brought in $18 million. s. and $43 million worldwide, while his most recent film, “Bones and All,” failed with only $15 million.
Additionally, tennis films aren’t known to fill theaters to capacity. For example, the 2017 film “Battle of the Sexes,” which starred Emma Stone and Steve Carrell as Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King, opened to $3 million and ended up grossing $12 million domestically. Comparing those results to the Shia Labeouf-led “Borg vs. McEnroe,” which was supposed to be about the rivalry between two other tennis legends, didn’t make $4 million in the world. And “King Richard,” which debuted to $5 million and garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, also debuted concurrently on HBO Max. While analysts believe that “King Richard”‘s day-and-date streaming debut during COVID suppressed ticket sales, the film still only managed to gross $15 million overall.
Warner Brothers. is handling the international distribution of “Challengers,” which has made $765,000 in two smaller markets. Over the weekend, the film opened in 51 foreign territories. Fourteen more countries followed in early May.
Although “Challengers” hasn’t received much positive reviews yet, word-of-mouth will be essential to its commercial success. In the movie, Zendaya plays a retired tennis prodigy who suffered an injury and then marries a losing tennis champion. She plans her revenge, which takes a turn when he has to compete against another player—who also happens to be her ex-lover and his former best friend. The movie was hailed as “hip and sexy” by Variety’s Peter Debruge, who also wrote that “Guadagnino’s approach to ‘Challengers’ elevates the material and makes it fresh, even though the plot may seem stale.”. “.
In other news, the debut of Lionsgate’s religious drama “Unsung Hero” is aimed at raising $5 million to $7 million from 2,800 theaters. A true story of the Smallbone family’s journey from Australia to Nashville as Christian recording artists is portrayed in this heartwarming movie. Given that “Unsung Hero” only cost $6 million, the studio should have no issue turning a profit. Following modest hits like “I Can Only Imagine,” “Jesus Revolution,” and the Hillary Swank-led “Ordinary Angels,” it’s the most recent partnership between Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company. “.
