Photo: A24/Courtesy Everett Collection
The drama surrounding The Drama failed to dramatically curtail audience attendance for A24’s cringe rom-com over its opening weekend in theaters. The spectacle of Zendaya and Robert Pattinson navigating the mother of all pre-wedding “I never really knew you at all” revelations appears to have outshone negative buzz about the film’s shocking first-act reveal. (One that was spoiled by more than a week of global headlines such as “She survived two school shootings. New rom-com ‘The Drama’ is no laughing matter” and “School Shootings Aren’t Funny. That’s What The Drama Doesn’t Get.”)
The rage-bait-y, R-rated feature earned $14.4 million over its North American debut (and $28 million worldwide) to deliver A24’s third-highest-grossing opening to date. It ranks behind only the $25.7 million first-weekend frame for Alex Garland’s Civil War and Marty Supreme’s $17.5 million debut this Christmas. That number was squarely in keeping with prerelease “tracking” estimates for The Drama that foresaw an opening-weekend tally of between $13 million and $15 million. Moreover, its global gross basically matched the Kristoffer Borgli–directed romantic comedy’s reported production budget. That’s a positive augury not only for the film’s impending profitability — $28 million is an above-average price tag for A24 — but also for the blockbusterdom of two of 2026’s biggest films: Pattinson and Zendaya will co-star again in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Dune: Part Three.
According to studio data, 68 percent of Drama ticket buyers were women and 80 percent under 35: the usual demographic sweet spot for films both romantic and comedic. Opening-night audiences gave the film a B CinemaScore, meaning they liked it but didn’t love it; a good-enough result in conjunction with generally positive reviews. In his FranchiseRE newsletter, however, movie-industry analyst David A. Gross points out that romantic comedies have dropped off steeply over the last 15 years: A mere four wide-release rom-coms came out last year versus 15 in 2010. With its relentless conflict, high quease factor, and cascading series of indignities, The Drama showcases the extended-release suffering of its leads, fitting right into a trend of the moment. “Current romantic comedies are about the misery of romance and watching these unhappy couples not getting what they want, arguing, losing their cool, and occasionally punching each other” — Anyone But You (Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell; worldwide gross: $220.3 million), Ticket to Paradise (George Clooney and Julia Roberts; $168.8 million) and A24’s Materialists (Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans; $107.9 million) standing as exemplars of the genre.
Skewing more toward younger viewers and their chaperones, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie achieved the box-office high score this weekend. The family-friendly video-game adaptation sequel to 2023’s Super Mario Bros. Movie pulled in $130 million from 4,200 North American theaters to arrive as the year’s biggest opening — dethroning the Ryan Gosling sci-fi crowd pleaser Project Hail Mary, which claimed the title of 2026’s biggest debut just seven days earlier.
Source: Read Full Article
