L-R: Queen Latifah, Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish
and Jada Pinkett Smith
As the old show business saying goes “Dying is
easy, and comedy is hard,” and that’s been
the case for a number of titles in the genre at
the box office this year which have dropped
like flies. Take your pick: Rough Night,
Baywatch, The House, Fist Fight, the list goes
on. Compare this to last year when four
comedies – all released during the summer –
held the ir own including
Ghostbusters (it made $128M despite being a financial upset), Central Intelligence ($127.4M), Bad Moms
($113.3M) and Sausage Party ($97M).
But this summer, and this year to date, Universal can relish the fact that they bucked a downward box office
trend with their sleeper hit Girls Trip from director Malcolm D. Lee which is crossing $100M at the domestic
box office today.
Many say that the female audience is underserved, and again it shows that they’re titillated by raunchy
comedies, and that’s why Girls Trip continues to speed along at the summer B.O. But, wait a second, wasn’t
Rough Night a female raunchy pic aimed at women?
Turns out you need more than a dead stripper and a cocaine-fueled bridesmaid party to generate laughs,
and that’s heart and well-drawn characters and that’s where Girls Trip delivers. Lee is a brand name among
African American audiences, especially when it comes to delivering these solid adult comedies. The pic,
which stars Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish and Jada Pinkett Smith, follows four old college
friends who travel to Essence Fest in New Orleans and come away closer then ever before. Girls Trip, which
opened on July 21 against Dunkirk, is also Lee’s top opening at the B.O. with $31.2M and his second movie
after The Best Man Holiday to earn an A+ CinemaScore. The comedy is also producer Will Packer’s third title
to cross $100M after Ride Along and Straight Outta Compton.
Universal insiders say that knew they had something special when at an early test screening, the audience
was laughing so hard and continuous, you couldn’t hear all the jokes. Even though we’ve written the
obituary for comedy at the summer box office, there couldn’t be a more opportune time for them in a
society that’s in need of laughs after all the daunting Trump-era headlines, and Girls Trip is that social
catharsis.
Abroad, Girls Trip made $7.4M already in the United Kingdom and could surpass Get Out there which ended
its run at $12.7M. The comedy was also No. 1 in South Africa for two weekend in a row with close to a half
million. The next markets to release will be Australia and Romania on Aug. 31, with additional markets rolling
out through November.
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