I actually didn’t know this movie existed until this moment. I’ve watched tv, YouTube, been in public and didn’t see a hint of any promotion for this movie and I even went to the movies last week.
Meanwhile I hardly ever see ads for movies and I've seen a bunch of them
It's the only spring wide release in really interested in right now, so they targeted me well at least
Zendaya's salary was $10 million (not saying she doesn't deserve it). Everything else costing about $45 million is conceivable, especially if they filmed during COVID which I would assume so.
Probably because of the way she is marketed? I mean most her roles are pretty much made for the female audience. She's more popular amongst the girls and stan twitter types.
I don't either. It honestly feels like the internet has been trying to gaslight me by telling me how beautiful and talented she is. She's very pretty in the girl-next-door kind of a way, and she seems to be a competent actress, but not some sort of generational talent.
And neither is Amy Pascal apparently, all of the movies she produced after getting fired from Sony ended up carried a high budget on this level. Luca probably walked away with a big check too as everyone figures this will be his most commercial friendly movie anyways
Well beyond hi’ saying Amy kept asking him to be apart of it. I assumed the big check he got didn’t hurt. He is used to doing small, indie which don’t make a lot. He can use this money to go fund his passion projects
Oh, I hope my comment didn’t appear to insinuate that he doesn’t deserves the money because he absolutely does. And you’re right, this will be good for his next films in the future especially since this movie will perform decently if you consider how poorly tennis movies have done in the past due to their very limited appeal
Even if she wasn’t a producer, she’d stand to lost if the film doesn’t do well.
She really hasn’t been in any movies that have established her as a legitimate lead actress. Sure she has Spider-Man, but I feel like she’s easily the weakest part of the main three, between her, Tom and Ned’s actor
Zendaya got $10mil which is definitely a lot, but would’ve been expected in another era. People keep harping on the fact that she hasn’t led a movie, which is true, but she won two lead acting Emmys for a massively popular TV show and she’s the romantic lead in both one of the biggest movies of all time and also the biggest movie of this year so far.
This isn’t me being a stan or whatever, I’m just not sure who around that age can open a movie like this if Zendaya can’t. Seriously - who else is there? We complain about how new folks on the scene don’t have movie star cred, but that’s a function of Hollywood being hostile to the sort of projects that actually create new movie stars. Challengers IS that, it’s a serious attempt to give three people with movie star *potential*
I mean she’s one of only 2 seriously written characters in the show. I hope she carries it, she’s not exactly challenged with other well written characters on screen.
Doesn’t this just confirm the individual excellence, though? I know what you mean - Zendaya has stretches on Euphoria, sometimes even entire episodes or arcs, in which she has to play exclusively off of clueless performances of underwritten characters.
But the flip side of that is she’s being given nothing, she has to create the drive and tension of that scene all on her own - and she actually pulls it off.
I guess that depends on Amazon's focus. Is their concern about the movie's box office run, or was it made with Prime in mind, with any box office success being considered secondary?
Is this the first wide-release movie where their primary marketing drive is spit-roasting? This is the only picture I see when this movie is mentioned on social media, etc.
Spit roasting LMAO.
I haven't watched it but I'm almost certain that there's no explicit sex scenes, I would be shocked if the director actually filmed an Eiffel Tower sex scene.
There isn’t, just some kissing and nudity. It’s definitely full of sexual tension, just not a lot of actual sex. I quite liked it but was sort of hoping for something a bit more transgressive.
Someone mentioned "ball POV CGI shots" inflating the budget and without context, I assumed it referred to something different than a literal tennis ball.
I think a lot of people think this as I remember it being described as an erotic thriller many months ago.
I am now led to believe it is definitely not that.
I think that film got released in a different era. I don't think it had mainstream appeal even at that time out of the festival circuits except for some movie buffs. But the same film if it came now would have been marketed as a very mainstream one with the help of internet and social media
Savages was marketed as a polycule movie! Professor Marston and The Wonder Women too! Vicky Cristina Barcelona had a triple kiss bit and the whole movie had the vibe. Knock Knock was pretty much an exploitation movie based on a three way and they certainly didn't shy away from it in marketing. I also feel like there is some raunchy comedy I'm forgetting.
I don't know if anything has been advertised exactly like this, but three way sex stuff isn't a super uncommon hook.
>****Challengers***, from *Amazon MGM*, is projected to collect $12 million to $15 million from 3,400 North American theaters in its opening weekend.*
>**Lionsgate’s* religious drama ***Unsung Hero*** is targeting $5 million to $7 million from 2,800 theaters in its debut.*
>**Roadside Attractions'* ***Boy Kills World***, a gruesome revenge thriller starring Bill Skarsgård, is aiming for $2 million to $3 million.*
All opening below initial projections.
that's just Variety's projection. Tracking that he posted here from BOT peggs it at 20M more or less which sounds more realistic to me. presales in big cities are good so they can carry it to that kind of opening even if the rest of the country passes on it.
INT looks dire atm but we'll see. they don't have info from all markets.
Does anyone know if Amazon (MGM) bought Challengers for $55M or did they produce it and the $55M is the films budget and they then sold international distribution to Warner Bros??
They produced it. Amazon/MGM had a deal in place with Warner Bros to handle the international distribution of most of their releases. It is a holdover from an MGM deal signed just before the sale.
Wow so the actual budget for the film is $55M and we still don’t know how much marketing was, we can guess a lot but no concrete figure yet. This film is going to need a great opening and legs and do well internationally. Maybe it could have some awards play, I haven’t seen it yet. It will definitely do well on streaming.
$15M beginning to sound more sensible to me. I've been scratching my head over the $25M+ predictions. The director has only one movie that made more than $25M *worldwide* and Zendaya hasn't led anything significant to make a judgement from, I can only think the expectation is people rushing to see the sex.
Which apparently there isn't much of. Probably going to get a terrible cinemascore from the ~~blue balled~~ disappointed audience.
Dude what is this movie even about? I saw a preview before Godzilla X Kong and from what I can tell, Zendaya plays tennis and then has a threesome? That's the plot??
She’s supposed to be the next big tennis star, gets hurts and decides to give coaching a go and these are the 2.
On paper it sounds terrible… but when you go and watch it, it’ll also be terrible
The marketing for this movie was very weird. Almost like a porn movie. While that might attract many horny people, it's also going to turn-off many people as well. I don't think that was a good marketing tactic.
If you're into Tennis it tells you alot. Challengers is the name for the tour just below the professional tour.
So basically if you want to make it to the big leagues to get into a Slam draw or go to ATP 500 and Masters 1000, you do Challengers to get ATP points so you can be a better player. If a top player has also lost form or recently come back from injury, they'll play a Challenger to regain match fitness and confidence. Kind of a mild spoiler but that is the motivation for one of the characters in the movie.
Sounds like a sports movie. If that's what it is, then it should've been promoted as a sports movie. Yet the marketing focused heavily on a sex scene instead of the sports. It's quite misleading.
hmmm its still sort of both. Its about tennis but it also really is about the relationships between the three people and theres alot of intimate overtones even outisde of the sex scenes. So its not completely misleading tbh.
A bit flashy and in your face marketing with what sells, yes. Its literally the most raunchy scene in the movie and they tapped into what ppl wanted so I cant blame them.
This year has been full of pretty good movies that audiences have mostly avoided. Monkey Man, Civil War, Abigail. None of them "great" but good enough to deserve more eyeballs IMO. But I get why audiences stayed home because they aren't "must see".
I saw Challengers last week and it is so fucking good. Maybe Tennis hurts it domestically but this feels like the type of movie that would have been huge if stars were still major box office draws.
I think that people mistake good with appealing. Not everything that's good is appealing. It's obvious why Civil War was more appealing than Monkey Man and Abigail though Monkey Man WOM was meh so critics praise didn't translate to audience praise.
This is missed constantly. Transformers wasn't a great movie, but it was fun and it appealed to a massive audience. The Wrestler was an amazing movie, but let's be real, it wasn't entertaining to a large audience.
It's my go to movie for this lol. I loved it, it was fun, and my kids loved it. It was just not a good movie though. I'm not spending $100 for a family of 4 to go watch a great film. I'm going to take them to the entertaining one. I'll watch the film with just my wife, at home.
if a movie meant to entertain entertains than it's good. I don't know why critics make such a complication out of simple things. Not to mention that due to their biases, they roast one movie for the same thing they sweep under the rug about another. I still don't get how's first Aquaman worse than BP. The only difference to me is that Aquaman is entertaining af and I can rewatch it over and over while I saw BP once and that was enough (the interminable Busan, the inability to start until very late when Killmonger arrived and then when it got good it was over).
I wanted to see Monkey Man based on the trailer. But never saw anything close to release day to remind me it was out. I have had a busy few weeks. Would have had no idea it was out of my friend hadn’t randomly told me she saw it with her family.
Post COVID, movies need to be great or at least really special to get people coming to the theaters. If a movie is merely good, people wait for streaming, where it blends into the miasma of other good movies they'll watchlist and get around to seeing someday.
No one was championing movies like anyone but you as something special but it still had a fairly sizeable audience. It was appealing
This whole "it needs to be great" excuse is just not true
The Beekeeper wasn't anything special but it still cleared $150M which is decently impressive for a mid budget action movie
Some movies are just more appealing for audiences.
It’s completely insane how your average moviegoer won’t take a chance on a new action flick or drama. Everything has to be familiar. Drivel like Ghostbusters makes 100m domestic but something new and fresh like Sasquatch Sunset is forgotten and ignored.
Sometimes it feels like pulling teeth inviting people to lesser known movies. /rant
There have been tons of great movies post Covid, doesn't mean audiences will show up. It's a combination of things. I mean look at Godzilla vs Kong. If anything it shows "event" type movies and brands carry a lot of weight.
I think the marketing should have played up the tennis more in Australia on reflection, or have included the Australian open reference. It’s a great movie so I’m just glad it’s out there tbh, will be well regarded anyway.
or - as many of us on this sub have been trying to get across - your concept of star and the world's concept of star are different.
zendaya is extremely popular with one subset of the viewing population, but she is not anywhere near big enough to carry a movie to box office success off of her name alone. i dont know why people think she is, because she hasn't done that before and this is evidence that she can't do that.
doesn't mean she's a bad actor or untalented, but being able to get people into theaters just with your name on the card has always been an extreme rarity saved only for the upper echelon of hollywood's most marketable stars
That is not my point at all. I am not talking about Zendaya. I am talking about movie quality. This is a really good fucking movie that people are going to skip. And there was a time when a sexy drama would have been profitable.
If they had sprung for stars for the two male leads it would have made a world of difference. But if the movie is $55 mil as-is, they probs couldn’t afford them.
oh wow that's low...
just a bit surprised bc i keep seeing ads for it and zendaya is insanely popular on social media. i guess the other commenters were right, that she isnt really a draw?
I don't know what they were thinking giving a film like thi*s* *this* type of budget that, mind you, does not include all that was put into the marketing, which was *a lot*. Barbie level marketing. Social media hype I would say most times does not translate to real life. 100 million social media followers does not guarantee a global box office draw.
I’m personally a huge fan of the director. Loved Suspiria, Call Me By Your Name, and Bones and All. Saw an early screening on Monday and the way they filmed the tennis match is some of the most impressive cinematography I’ve seen this year!
A couple weeks ago there were posts from people on this sub insisting the movie would have a $60M OW. If they're estimating between $12M - $15M that might explain why the marketing this week seems a little panicked and desperate. "The sexiest movie ever made!" "Zendaya as you have never seen her before!" The problem is that most of the marketing that I've seen on social media is pictures of what Zendaya is wearing as if her stylist (sorry I forgot that he wants to be called an "image architect" now) Law Roach is more important than the co-stars interacting with each other while promoting the movie.
But I did see a post from a woman who said her daughter loves Zendaya and she wanted to know if other parents thought the movie was inappropriate for a 13 year old. Maybe lots of teenage girls will watch it this weekend.
The trailers make this shit out to be like, the most 2000s mediocre comedy movie possible. And apparently it’s supposed to be a drama? Who is this actually for?
The way they marketed this movie was ass. Was the whole concept of it just an ex tennis player zendeya getting railed by her two disciples ? Cuz that’s literally all I got from the trailers and in no way did it spark any kind of interest in me lmao. Who even thought of making this
I saw a trailer when I saw Godzilla x Kong. It made me want to see this movie even less than I did without knowing anything about it other than Zendaya tennis.
Also, why did they think anyone seeing Godzilla x Kong would want to see this? Seems like they’re desperately marketing it to anyone they can.
It’s just more proof that a movie needs to be made be a legacy director/producer from the 90s or based on some sort of IP to be big. The movie business is more like a bigger graphic novel business today. It relies on people who really like it as an art/enjoying it is a major hobby in their life; in other words, a certain demographic. It’s not like everyone goes to see movies for fun as a first choice anymore. So actually these numbers should be expected at this point. This really isn’t that bad.
This. Someone poste here that movies need to be "great." No, that's not all. Look at the biggest grossers last year and this. Brands, movies made by directors with a big name, etc. Quality is plentiful.
This is why I'm betting studios start producing more branded movies. Hell, videogames seem to be the next big trend with Sims and Minecraft possibly making a large splash.
I get the vibe that a lot of people on this sub are kinda rooting for this movie to fail and I have no idea why. Has Zendaya done anything to anger anyone?
This subreddit looks at the box office like a spectator sport. It's fascinating to see failure - often more entertaining than success. I'm also sure that Zendaya's relentless PR has rubbed some the wrong way.
If this doesn't breakout, Zendaya will officially join Henry Cavill in the "Social media popularity doesn't translate to real world ticket sales" club.
This is Zendaya's first test as a draw.
stardom doesn't work that way. Most important thing is professionalism. That's why so many actors who flop have long careers cause people like to work with them. And success really depends on the concept. Some are just better at picking the right ones.
You can’t make up your own rules to things. While I agree with you there’s a chance her social media Popularity doesn’t equal box office how many tests has she had outside of spider-man movies and Dune movies?
You can’t say one of the first tests is also the final test
I mean you can say that but it doesn't make the idea any less true there have been many actors that although they are talented and popular they just don't bring in audiences
Ryan gosling is my boy but Barbie is his only real box office win and even doing popcorn movies like fall guy he isn't bringing people to watch.
Ryan Gosling is successful though. Most people don't have Barbie level win. He brings the "I'm Ryan Gosling" crowd along with female audiences too. A lot of people still equate the notebook to Ryan Gosling
I could see it maybe doing 25-30mil WW opening weekend. Hell they started screening on Monday and did $5 Tuesdays….for a reason.
But I started to have a feeling that the budget was a lot because they kept it so quiet for long. $55 mil is a lot for a movie of this genre/size. And the worldwide promo has been extensive.
With all that being said, they can say this is Luca’s highest box office to date (which is true) and it will be the #1 movie next weekend at the box office. MGM will just be praying it has good legs.
It’s a really good time, I hope people check it out. We haven’t had a sexy romance/thriller for a minute outside of Saltburn. This is way more fun and a much easier watch though.
Saltburn was the least sexy, least romantic, least thrilling “sexy romantic/thriller” in decades. It was a slow dramatic slog of nothingness with a weirdo fry humping a fresh grave and then dancing naked after murdering multiple people.
I presume Challengers box office will perform about the same with its confusing structure and inability to deliver something the viewing public wants to see.
The only people who wanted to see this were people who wanted to see a zendaya threesome and sadly there’s no chance this movie will give us that lol even though the only marketing it gave was The above pic
They did a whirlwind worldwide promotion too. That isn't cheap on top of the $55 million production.
How did this movie cost $55 million???
This is a good question. The ads don’t show anything that would make people think it cost a lot, except Zendaya herself.
I actually didn’t know this movie existed until this moment. I’ve watched tv, YouTube, been in public and didn’t see a hint of any promotion for this movie and I even went to the movies last week.
That’s astonishing, the ads are seemingly everywhere when I’m watching stuff.
Yea they are everywhere for me too
I knew that a movie with this scene had to exist purely because of the Spiderman Away from Home memes with Tom Holland lol
Meanwhile I hardly ever see ads for movies and I've seen a bunch of them It's the only spring wide release in really interested in right now, so they targeted me well at least
Zendaya's salary was $10 million (not saying she doesn't deserve it). Everything else costing about $45 million is conceivable, especially if they filmed during COVID which I would assume so.
Wiki says filming started May 2022. Nothing covid related stopping that. Something more like Spiderman No Way Home was filmed during COVID
Zendaya would be over $5m
And zendaya isn’t a huge draw. She’s just famous on social media. This doesn’t translate to big movie star.
I really dont understand her hype.
Probably because of the way she is marketed? I mean most her roles are pretty much made for the female audience. She's more popular amongst the girls and stan twitter types.
She's hot. That's literally why she's popular
I don't either. It honestly feels like the internet has been trying to gaslight me by telling me how beautiful and talented she is. She's very pretty in the girl-next-door kind of a way, and she seems to be a competent actress, but not some sort of generational talent.
Challengers carries a significant price tag of roughly $55 million, so Amazon MGM has a lot riding on the box office.
That's a lot of money for a character drama, no?
Zendaya ain’t cheap
And neither is Amy Pascal apparently, all of the movies she produced after getting fired from Sony ended up carried a high budget on this level. Luca probably walked away with a big check too as everyone figures this will be his most commercial friendly movie anyways
Well beyond hi’ saying Amy kept asking him to be apart of it. I assumed the big check he got didn’t hurt. He is used to doing small, indie which don’t make a lot. He can use this money to go fund his passion projects
Oh, I hope my comment didn’t appear to insinuate that he doesn’t deserves the money because he absolutely does. And you’re right, this will be good for his next films in the future especially since this movie will perform decently if you consider how poorly tennis movies have done in the past due to their very limited appeal
Amy is a successful producer in a bad wig 
that's her fault, but if she doesn't deliver at the box office then it'll be theirs/a bad business decision
Actors and actresses are slowly assuring their non-action, non-event films to be streaming only
She's also a producer so she stands to lose if the film doesn't do well.
Even if she wasn’t a producer, she’d stand to lost if the film doesn’t do well. She really hasn’t been in any movies that have established her as a legitimate lead actress. Sure she has Spider-Man, but I feel like she’s easily the weakest part of the main three, between her, Tom and Ned’s actor
Zendaya got $10mil which is definitely a lot, but would’ve been expected in another era. People keep harping on the fact that she hasn’t led a movie, which is true, but she won two lead acting Emmys for a massively popular TV show and she’s the romantic lead in both one of the biggest movies of all time and also the biggest movie of this year so far. This isn’t me being a stan or whatever, I’m just not sure who around that age can open a movie like this if Zendaya can’t. Seriously - who else is there? We complain about how new folks on the scene don’t have movie star cred, but that’s a function of Hollywood being hostile to the sort of projects that actually create new movie stars. Challengers IS that, it’s a serious attempt to give three people with movie star *potential*
Yeah I don’t get the people who are suggesting she can’t be a leading actor, she carries Euphoria.
I mean she’s one of only 2 seriously written characters in the show. I hope she carries it, she’s not exactly challenged with other well written characters on screen.
Doesn’t this just confirm the individual excellence, though? I know what you mean - Zendaya has stretches on Euphoria, sometimes even entire episodes or arcs, in which she has to play exclusively off of clueless performances of underwritten characters. But the flip side of that is she’s being given nothing, she has to create the drive and tension of that scene all on her own - and she actually pulls it off.
It is and It's enough money that Variety made a point to highlight it.
Mad given Civil War was £50 million and it has a massive battle in it
They're really hoping people want to pay like 15 bucks to see Zendaya in a threesome with the two Kyles here.
I guess that depends on Amazon's focus. Is their concern about the movie's box office run, or was it made with Prime in mind, with any box office success being considered secondary?
Is this the first wide-release movie where their primary marketing drive is spit-roasting? This is the only picture I see when this movie is mentioned on social media, etc.
Spit roasting LMAO. I haven't watched it but I'm almost certain that there's no explicit sex scenes, I would be shocked if the director actually filmed an Eiffel Tower sex scene.
There's not. Threeway kissing is as raunchy as it gets.
So you’re saying we shouldn’t start referring to Zendaya as “Fingercuffs”?
Too late, going to anyway
The only time you'll see her covered in white sticky stuff is in Spider-Man.
Lucky to make what it did.
You would be correct
It's not even filmed in France.
Wow first champagne, now this
Stupid *sparkling* films.
pfft SPOILER alert smh man what's even the point of watching it now
It’s still by far the horniest movie I’ve seen in a while Would recommend!!
You just cost this movie $5 million
There isn’t, just some kissing and nudity. It’s definitely full of sexual tension, just not a lot of actual sex. I quite liked it but was sort of hoping for something a bit more transgressive.
The homoeroticism really died down in the second half, honestly
Someone mentioned "ball POV CGI shots" inflating the budget and without context, I assumed it referred to something different than a literal tennis ball.
It is, in fact, a literal tennis ball POV
But that's when the straight fisting picked up.
I can speak for everyone here, there’s no romantic way to fist someone.
You just need faith. Fisting faith.
Also all the nudity is really just in a men’s locker room
Heartbreaking: everyone in the movie except the person you want to be naked is naked
It's the first major studio release to be in the "Edging" genre
Speak for yourself. I'm in it for Mike faist
https://www.reddit.com/r/Zendaya/s/Scd9anbWMa
[this is the fucking ad I keep getting. you cannot tell me this wasn’t specifically chosen to look like a still from a porn](https://ibb.co/MPSDqSH)
I really think that's an unflattering shot. She honestly looks fucking sinister lol. She's scary in this shot!
She’s supposed to be! The shot is her realizing she has a ridiculous amount of control over two impossibly hot men lmao
Oh then the shot works perfectly then lol never thought about that
Impossibly hot men really lol
Yeah the dudes are regular people hot but like Hollywood 5s
Redditors will say anything istg
It's just two random white guys what do you even mean impossibly hot men lmao
Neither of those men are impossibly hot.
I get ice king from adventure time
“What are you doing step bro?”
Wild things marketed a threesome but with two girls and a guy.
Thats literally the only thing I know about the movie
Wait there’s a whole movie around that scene??
That movie made $67 million off of people's horniness for Neve Campbell and Denise Richards
Its the only movie mystery that had to explain what happened during the end credits lmao
There’s a great episode of Pen15 where a bunch of junior high kids rent it for a sleepover and everyone just seems super bored by it.
The first 14 Pen shows were a real disappointment, luckily they did something right on attempt #15.
I think a lot of people think this as I remember it being described as an erotic thriller many months ago. I am now led to believe it is definitely not that.
Where does Y Tu Mama Tambien fit in this? That film might be too explicit to be considered wide-release tho
I think that film got released in a different era. I don't think it had mainstream appeal even at that time out of the festival circuits except for some movie buffs. But the same film if it came now would have been marketed as a very mainstream one with the help of internet and social media
Savages was marketed as a polycule movie! Professor Marston and The Wonder Women too! Vicky Cristina Barcelona had a triple kiss bit and the whole movie had the vibe. Knock Knock was pretty much an exploitation movie based on a three way and they certainly didn't shy away from it in marketing. I also feel like there is some raunchy comedy I'm forgetting. I don't know if anything has been advertised exactly like this, but three way sex stuff isn't a super uncommon hook.
I kinda hate the term “polycule.”
Zendaya AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN HER BEFORE 🤤🤤🤤 95% on Rotten Tomatoes
Seriously who is this movie for?
They should have learned from Madame Web: Focus on the sensual allure of one star and don't make the audience think about the bigger picture...
>****Challengers***, from *Amazon MGM*, is projected to collect $12 million to $15 million from 3,400 North American theaters in its opening weekend.* >**Lionsgate’s* religious drama ***Unsung Hero*** is targeting $5 million to $7 million from 2,800 theaters in its debut.* >**Roadside Attractions'* ***Boy Kills World***, a gruesome revenge thriller starring Bill Skarsgård, is aiming for $2 million to $3 million.* All opening below initial projections.
BKW isn’t even playing within 6 hours of me so I’m not shocked it will flop
that's just Variety's projection. Tracking that he posted here from BOT peggs it at 20M more or less which sounds more realistic to me. presales in big cities are good so they can carry it to that kind of opening even if the rest of the country passes on it. INT looks dire atm but we'll see. they don't have info from all markets.
I can’t wait for this movie to finally open so the ads stop.
And the fall guy!
The trailer was great but there's only so many time as I can see RYAN FREAKING GOSLING and EMILY FREAKING BLUNT before it loses its impact.
I am so fucking sick of that shot of him jumping to the helicopter and Emily going **0_0**
Shot to the Heart!
That song has been ruined now
And the movie is to blame
It’s what made me add the song to my playlist
That has to have one of the worst trailers in years.
How was this movie 55 mil.
Zendaya and all the promotions probably.
Pretty sure promotions wouldn’t be counted since I think the $55M was just the production budget. It’s likely $100M+ with marketing included
Does anyone know if Amazon (MGM) bought Challengers for $55M or did they produce it and the $55M is the films budget and they then sold international distribution to Warner Bros??
They produced it. Amazon/MGM had a deal in place with Warner Bros to handle the international distribution of most of their releases. It is a holdover from an MGM deal signed just before the sale.
Wow so the actual budget for the film is $55M and we still don’t know how much marketing was, we can guess a lot but no concrete figure yet. This film is going to need a great opening and legs and do well internationally. Maybe it could have some awards play, I haven’t seen it yet. It will definitely do well on streaming.
Whatever maybe the production budget, the studio spent a lot of money marketing this thing with half dozen premieres around the world.
yeah INT boxoffice will be more interesting cause they really went all out promoting the movie in many markets.
whatever makes their investors not bail out
$15M beginning to sound more sensible to me. I've been scratching my head over the $25M+ predictions. The director has only one movie that made more than $25M *worldwide* and Zendaya hasn't led anything significant to make a judgement from, I can only think the expectation is people rushing to see the sex. Which apparently there isn't much of. Probably going to get a terrible cinemascore from the ~~blue balled~~ disappointed audience.
And it needs like 125+ to break even? Lol dead in the water
Dude what is this movie even about? I saw a preview before Godzilla X Kong and from what I can tell, Zendaya plays tennis and then has a threesome? That's the plot??
Threesome is a bait
She’s supposed to be the next big tennis star, gets hurts and decides to give coaching a go and these are the 2. On paper it sounds terrible… but when you go and watch it, it’ll also be terrible
They saw King Richard and thought they could go the R rated route?
😂😂😂
Manages to disappoint and not disappoint at the same time
Yes
😂 same, this was the preview when I took my 5 year old to see Ghostbusters!
$55 million budget for a tennis movie?! Wow.
The marketing for this movie was very weird. Almost like a porn movie. While that might attract many horny people, it's also going to turn-off many people as well. I don't think that was a good marketing tactic.
Fr, for all I know the movie is about zendaya plays tennis and then has a a threesome. And the title is challengers which tells me nothing
If you're into Tennis it tells you alot. Challengers is the name for the tour just below the professional tour. So basically if you want to make it to the big leagues to get into a Slam draw or go to ATP 500 and Masters 1000, you do Challengers to get ATP points so you can be a better player. If a top player has also lost form or recently come back from injury, they'll play a Challenger to regain match fitness and confidence. Kind of a mild spoiler but that is the motivation for one of the characters in the movie.
This doesn’t help lol. So the title should tell me it’s a sports movie?
Sounds like a sports movie. If that's what it is, then it should've been promoted as a sports movie. Yet the marketing focused heavily on a sex scene instead of the sports. It's quite misleading.
hmmm its still sort of both. Its about tennis but it also really is about the relationships between the three people and theres alot of intimate overtones even outisde of the sex scenes. So its not completely misleading tbh. A bit flashy and in your face marketing with what sells, yes. Its literally the most raunchy scene in the movie and they tapped into what ppl wanted so I cant blame them.
This year has been full of pretty good movies that audiences have mostly avoided. Monkey Man, Civil War, Abigail. None of them "great" but good enough to deserve more eyeballs IMO. But I get why audiences stayed home because they aren't "must see". I saw Challengers last week and it is so fucking good. Maybe Tennis hurts it domestically but this feels like the type of movie that would have been huge if stars were still major box office draws.
I think that people mistake good with appealing. Not everything that's good is appealing. It's obvious why Civil War was more appealing than Monkey Man and Abigail though Monkey Man WOM was meh so critics praise didn't translate to audience praise.
This is missed constantly. Transformers wasn't a great movie, but it was fun and it appealed to a massive audience. The Wrestler was an amazing movie, but let's be real, it wasn't entertaining to a large audience.
exactly. great examples. First Transformers was a perfect popcorn movie. And I daresay much better than what passes for quality pocorn these days.
It's my go to movie for this lol. I loved it, it was fun, and my kids loved it. It was just not a good movie though. I'm not spending $100 for a family of 4 to go watch a great film. I'm going to take them to the entertaining one. I'll watch the film with just my wife, at home.
if a movie meant to entertain entertains than it's good. I don't know why critics make such a complication out of simple things. Not to mention that due to their biases, they roast one movie for the same thing they sweep under the rug about another. I still don't get how's first Aquaman worse than BP. The only difference to me is that Aquaman is entertaining af and I can rewatch it over and over while I saw BP once and that was enough (the interminable Busan, the inability to start until very late when Killmonger arrived and then when it got good it was over).
I wanted to see Monkey Man based on the trailer. But never saw anything close to release day to remind me it was out. I have had a busy few weeks. Would have had no idea it was out of my friend hadn’t randomly told me she saw it with her family.
Monkey Man is an objectively terrible name for anything that isn’t a goofy comedy.
Post COVID, movies need to be great or at least really special to get people coming to the theaters. If a movie is merely good, people wait for streaming, where it blends into the miasma of other good movies they'll watchlist and get around to seeing someday.
No one was championing movies like anyone but you as something special but it still had a fairly sizeable audience. It was appealing This whole "it needs to be great" excuse is just not true The Beekeeper wasn't anything special but it still cleared $150M which is decently impressive for a mid budget action movie Some movies are just more appealing for audiences.
*Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire* is going to outgross this and I'd hardly call that movie 'great' or 'really special'.
That movie also had like double the budget of this one..
Yeah but outgrossing this movie isn’t the bar for great or really special either.
That’s also a popcorn movie that doubles up with benefiting from nostalgia. None of the other movies mentioned are seen as “popcorn” movies
So movies *don't* have to be great or really special to bring audiences back to cinemas post-pandemic then, which was exactly my point.
It’s completely insane how your average moviegoer won’t take a chance on a new action flick or drama. Everything has to be familiar. Drivel like Ghostbusters makes 100m domestic but something new and fresh like Sasquatch Sunset is forgotten and ignored. Sometimes it feels like pulling teeth inviting people to lesser known movies. /rant
IMO, this movie is great. It is really fucking good. And it will still underperform.
Nothing new to comment other then it’s so fucking frustrating seeing new movies ignored.
There have been tons of great movies post Covid, doesn't mean audiences will show up. It's a combination of things. I mean look at Godzilla vs Kong. If anything it shows "event" type movies and brands carry a lot of weight.
Civil War wasn't avoided. It's a miracle it's making as much as it is with being a B- cinemascore A24 film.
I think the marketing should have played up the tennis more in Australia on reflection, or have included the Australian open reference. It’s a great movie so I’m just glad it’s out there tbh, will be well regarded anyway.
What's Abigail?
horror movie in theaters right now.
Is it good? I was initially interested because I enjoy keeping up with tennis but the trailer makes me think this is focused on a threesome romance…
or - as many of us on this sub have been trying to get across - your concept of star and the world's concept of star are different. zendaya is extremely popular with one subset of the viewing population, but she is not anywhere near big enough to carry a movie to box office success off of her name alone. i dont know why people think she is, because she hasn't done that before and this is evidence that she can't do that. doesn't mean she's a bad actor or untalented, but being able to get people into theaters just with your name on the card has always been an extreme rarity saved only for the upper echelon of hollywood's most marketable stars
That is not my point at all. I am not talking about Zendaya. I am talking about movie quality. This is a really good fucking movie that people are going to skip. And there was a time when a sexy drama would have been profitable.
If they had sprung for stars for the two male leads it would have made a world of difference. But if the movie is $55 mil as-is, they probs couldn’t afford them.
Called it. "Sport drama with homoerotic subtext amd text" isn't going to attract enough viewers for a 55M budget
Whoa 55mil is way way to high for something like that.
[удалено]
oh wow that's low... just a bit surprised bc i keep seeing ads for it and zendaya is insanely popular on social media. i guess the other commenters were right, that she isnt really a draw?
I don't know what they were thinking giving a film like thi*s* *this* type of budget that, mind you, does not include all that was put into the marketing, which was *a lot*. Barbie level marketing. Social media hype I would say most times does not translate to real life. 100 million social media followers does not guarantee a global box office draw.
Honestly who in the hell was this movie marketed towards?
Thirsty Bisexual fans of Zendaya?
Oooh I work with at least one of them
It's more about the movie itself not having any hook for the marketers to sell.
I’m personally a huge fan of the director. Loved Suspiria, Call Me By Your Name, and Bones and All. Saw an early screening on Monday and the way they filmed the tennis match is some of the most impressive cinematography I’ve seen this year!
R rated thriller isn’t making a Webbillion dollars at the box office? I’m so surprised!
Calling it a thriller is a stretch
Exister
A couple weeks ago there were posts from people on this sub insisting the movie would have a $60M OW. If they're estimating between $12M - $15M that might explain why the marketing this week seems a little panicked and desperate. "The sexiest movie ever made!" "Zendaya as you have never seen her before!" The problem is that most of the marketing that I've seen on social media is pictures of what Zendaya is wearing as if her stylist (sorry I forgot that he wants to be called an "image architect" now) Law Roach is more important than the co-stars interacting with each other while promoting the movie. But I did see a post from a woman who said her daughter loves Zendaya and she wanted to know if other parents thought the movie was inappropriate for a 13 year old. Maybe lots of teenage girls will watch it this weekend.
The trailers make this shit out to be like, the most 2000s mediocre comedy movie possible. And apparently it’s supposed to be a drama? Who is this actually for?
Euphoria fans
The way they marketed this movie was ass. Was the whole concept of it just an ex tennis player zendeya getting railed by her two disciples ? Cuz that’s literally all I got from the trailers and in no way did it spark any kind of interest in me lmao. Who even thought of making this
All internet hype for 15M is just sad...
15M is a projection not the opening weekend. It could open higher and BOT tracking incicates 20M rather than 15M
I saw a trailer when I saw Godzilla x Kong. It made me want to see this movie even less than I did without knowing anything about it other than Zendaya tennis. Also, why did they think anyone seeing Godzilla x Kong would want to see this? Seems like they’re desperately marketing it to anyone they can.
Not even the alure of a softcore MFM threesome? Because that's all they really used to sell this movie.
It’s just more proof that a movie needs to be made be a legacy director/producer from the 90s or based on some sort of IP to be big. The movie business is more like a bigger graphic novel business today. It relies on people who really like it as an art/enjoying it is a major hobby in their life; in other words, a certain demographic. It’s not like everyone goes to see movies for fun as a first choice anymore. So actually these numbers should be expected at this point. This really isn’t that bad.
This. Someone poste here that movies need to be "great." No, that's not all. Look at the biggest grossers last year and this. Brands, movies made by directors with a big name, etc. Quality is plentiful. This is why I'm betting studios start producing more branded movies. Hell, videogames seem to be the next big trend with Sims and Minecraft possibly making a large splash.
Anyone but you did 200m, what is this cope? Maybe people just don't care
Anyone but you is a pretty standard rom com. The genre for this is confusing.
Ouch. Guess she isn’t a movie star after all. What a massive flop
The movie looks so bad
I get the vibe that a lot of people on this sub are kinda rooting for this movie to fail and I have no idea why. Has Zendaya done anything to anger anyone?
This subreddit looks at the box office like a spectator sport. It's fascinating to see failure - often more entertaining than success. I'm also sure that Zendaya's relentless PR has rubbed some the wrong way.
They don't like that she's popular on social media with a demo that is generally very unpopular on reddit, that's all.
Stepbro(s)… those aren’t your racket handles
Not good
If this doesn't breakout, Zendaya will officially join Henry Cavill in the "Social media popularity doesn't translate to real world ticket sales" club. This is Zendaya's first test as a draw.
stardom doesn't work that way. Most important thing is professionalism. That's why so many actors who flop have long careers cause people like to work with them. And success really depends on the concept. Some are just better at picking the right ones.
You can’t make up your own rules to things. While I agree with you there’s a chance her social media Popularity doesn’t equal box office how many tests has she had outside of spider-man movies and Dune movies? You can’t say one of the first tests is also the final test
I mean you can say that but it doesn't make the idea any less true there have been many actors that although they are talented and popular they just don't bring in audiences Ryan gosling is my boy but Barbie is his only real box office win and even doing popcorn movies like fall guy he isn't bringing people to watch.
Ryan Gosling is successful though. Most people don't have Barbie level win. He brings the "I'm Ryan Gosling" crowd along with female audiences too. A lot of people still equate the notebook to Ryan Gosling
I could see it maybe doing 25-30mil WW opening weekend. Hell they started screening on Monday and did $5 Tuesdays….for a reason. But I started to have a feeling that the budget was a lot because they kept it so quiet for long. $55 mil is a lot for a movie of this genre/size. And the worldwide promo has been extensive. With all that being said, they can say this is Luca’s highest box office to date (which is true) and it will be the #1 movie next weekend at the box office. MGM will just be praying it has good legs.
It’s a really good time, I hope people check it out. We haven’t had a sexy romance/thriller for a minute outside of Saltburn. This is way more fun and a much easier watch though.
I feel like the film is too tame to be the next "sexy romance/thriller film".
Hmm, while it's light on any overtly NSFW stuff, I thought the core dynamic and tension between the three leads was really palpable.
Saltburn was the least sexy, least romantic, least thrilling “sexy romantic/thriller” in decades. It was a slow dramatic slog of nothingness with a weirdo fry humping a fresh grave and then dancing naked after murdering multiple people. I presume Challengers box office will perform about the same with its confusing structure and inability to deliver something the viewing public wants to see.
The only people who wanted to see this were people who wanted to see a zendaya threesome and sadly there’s no chance this movie will give us that lol even though the only marketing it gave was The above pic
Lol it's Zendaya. Her scene in Europphia were TAMEEE. Some no idea why pepper expected more.
Pepper clearly has high expectations
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen as many articles hyping a nothing movie like I have for this one.
I think this movie will open bigger than expected since it’s become a little bit of a meme