Box office preview: Zendaya’s sexy tennis film ‘Challengers’ is true test for actress’ star power

The month of April seemingly sailed by with far too many moderate releases, and the month ends this weekend with more of the same. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name,” “Suspiria”) returns with the sexy tennis drama “Challengers,” starring the powerhouse trio of Zendaya (“Euphoria”), Josh O’Connor (“The Crown”) and Mike Faist (“West Side Story”) as superstar tennis players who fall into a competitive love triangle. This is Zendaya’s first movie after “Dune: Part Two,” and it will be a real test for her as a box office star, since sports dramas can be hit or miss. “Challengers” really is riding on her popularity to avoid the pitfalls of the genre.

Tennis has had an especially tough time at the box office, as seen by Will Smith‘s Oscar-winning turn in the 2021 release “King Richard,” about the father of Venus and Serena Williams, which only opened with $5.4 million and grossed less than $38 million worldwide. Going further back to 2017, “Battle of the Sexes,” starring Steve Carell and Emma Stone, only made $12.6 million despite also being about two of the most famous tennis players of the ‘70s. And then there was 2004”s “Wimbledon,” starring Kirsten Dunst (currently in theaters in “Civil War”) and Paul Bettany, which opened with just $7.1 million, none of these great precursors for “Challengers” to do well.

“Challengers” was originally supposed to kick off last September’s Venice Film Festival, but it was delayed due to the actors’ strike. The delay may prove to be a smart one by MGM, since it allowed them to wait until Zendaya and the other actors could do the talk show rounds. The movie has been received particularly well by critics, currently at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the popularity of Zendaya and Guadagnino should go a long way to getting younger women into theaters this Friday, which could help “Challengers” open with $15 million or more this weekend to take first place.

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Lionsgate continues its partnership with the Kingdom Story Company for the faith-based drama “Unsung Hero,” telling the story of Australian concert promoter David Smallbone, who brought his pregnant wife Helen and their six kids from Australia to Nashville in 1991 to start anew. The film is co-written and co-directed by Joel Smallbone of the Grammy-winning Christian pop duo “for KING + COUNTRY,” who also plays his father David in the film, opposite Daisy Betts (“Chicago Fire”) as Helen.

In 2018, Lionsgate had a huge hit with “I Can Only Imagine” about the making of that popular Christian song, which opened with $17.1 million and grossed $83.4 million in North America. Its follow-up, “I Still Believe,” got waylaid by COVID when it was released in 2020, making just $10 million total. Having the involvement of Smallbone, as well as the connection to his sister, equally popular Christian singer Rebecca St. James, could help “Unsung Hero” do decently this weekend with their fans, especially.

Despite how hard it is to predict faith-based films at the box office, this one has a good chance at taking second place behind “Challengers” with $7 to 10 million or more, because it seems like good inspirational counterprogramming to everything else in theaters.

Lionsgate’s Roadside Attractions division, meanwhile, releases Moritz Mohr‘s violent revenge thriller “Boy Kills World,” starring Bill Skarsgård of “It” and “Barbarian.” Set in an apocalyptic “Hunger Games”-like future, Skarsgård plays the mute Boy, who watched his mother and sister be killed by the world’s domineering force, Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen), so he trains himself in order to get his bloody, violent revenge.

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Produced by genre legend Sam Raimi, Mohr has assembled an impressive cast around Skarsgård, including Jessica Rothe (“Happy Death Day”), Michelle Dockery (“Downton Abbey”), Brett Gelman, Sharlto Copley (who just appeared in “Monkey Man”), and Andrew Koji (“Snake Eyes,” “Bullet Train”). The movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in its “Midnight Madness” section and has racked up mostly positive reviews, scoring big with fans of crazy, violent action movies, although so did last year’s Finnish revenge thriller, “Sisu,” which only ended up making $7.3 million domestic.

Roadside Attractions is opening the movie in 2,5000 theaters, and the better-known cast should help “Boy Kills World” make $5 million or more this weekend, which gives it a chance of breaking into the top 5, though it will have some serious competition there from returning movies like “Civil War,” “Godzilla x Kong,” and “Abigail.”

There are also not one but two movies getting anniversary rereleases with Ridley Scott‘s “Alien” celebrating its 45th Anniversary, and the 1999 Universal reboot of “The Mummy,” starring recent Oscar winner Brendan Fraser, getting a 25th anniversary rerelease. We have no theater counts for either, as of this writing, but “Alien” seems like the better bet at breaking into the top 10, especially with Disney’s “Alien Day” promotion. 

Minhal Baig‘s coming-of-age “We Grown Now” will expand further nationwide after its platform release last weekend, though it doesn’t seem like something that might be able to break into the top 10, since it presumably will still be in less than 1,000 theaters.

Magnolia will also release Joanna Arnow‘s comedy “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed,” while IFC Films releases the apocalyptic thriller, “Humane,” the directorial debut by 2nd gen filmmaker, Caitlin Cronenberg.

As usual, you can find out how the above movies did in our box office recap on Sunday morning.

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