Zendaya’s got a major win to celebrate.
Amazon MGM Studios’ Challengers is being called at a $15M opening, which is officially the biggest opening ever for Oscar nominated filmmaker Luca Guadagnino. It’s also the best we’ve seen from Zendaya for a live-action, original, non-IP movie. Friday/previews are $6.2M, Saturday was $5M, -19% and the studio has the confidence that Sunday will come in at $3.78M.
Before this, the widest release for Guadagnino was his Timothee Chalamet cannibal romance, Bones and All, which went wide over Thanksgiving weekend with $2.2M over 3-days, $3.6M over 5-days and finaled at $7.8M back in 2022.
Not counting Spider-Mans or Dunes or anything animated, Challengers notches ahead of the $8.8M 2017 Christmas weekend opening of The Greatest Showman which Zendaya starred in, but was largely sold off of Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams and Zac Efron.
Challengers gets a B+ CinemaScore, which isn’t shabby for this two-hour, 11-minute sexy romantic comedy.
Challengers is pulling in 58% women with a huge 18-34 turnout at 76%. The biggest demo is 18-24 year olds at 41%. Diversity demos are 43% Caucasian, 27% Latino and Hispanic, 17% Black, 9% Asian, and 4% other.
Deep diving into the demos, no doubt Challengers was a date movie, drawing 31% who came with either their spouse, partner, boyfriend or girlfriend. Funny enough, young guys love this movie more than girls, with men under 25 giving it a 83% score (16% turnout).
via: Deadline
