DJ COMMUNITY

UNIVERSAL'S GIRLS TRIP HAS A BIG WEEKEND!

Universal’s Girls Trip landed director Malcolm D. Lee not only his second A+ CinemaScore following the director’s 2013 movie The Best Man Holiday, but also the best opening of his career at the domestic B.O. with $30.4M, beating Holiday‘s $30.1M. This is a fantastic start for a movie that cost under $20M, and it’s great for comedies in a marketplace that has been intolerant of the genre. On Friday, the film made $11.7M and eased 5% on Saturday for $11.1M.

As other majors attempt to build lower-budget fare with the intent to profit, Universal makes sure that what it builds works (look at the half-billion-plus they racked up with Split and Get Out off of their under-$20M combined microbudgets). RelishMix sees Girls Trip‘s momentum fueled by its cast’s passion to promote on social media. “It’s encouraging to see an entire cast get behind a film — every cast member is social and activated, which is a true rarity. So, many of the YouTube views are surely driven by the super-social cast, led by Queen Latifah’s 18M followers,” reported the social media firm. Jada Pinkett Smith counts 8.9M followers across Facebook and Twitter, while co-star Kate Walsh has 2.5M across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

“Girls Trip is a break-through comedy that is providing audiences with big entertainment, big laughs,” said Universal domestic distribution chief Nick Carpou, “Malcolm D. Lee is a master at creating characters and telling stories that resonate, and in conjunction with producers Will Packer and James Lopez, has brought us a fresh, raunchy, empowering comedy. Universal has a history of making bold, female driven films like Bridesmaids, Pitch Perfect series, Trainwreck, and Sisters, providing a diverse range of entertainment in the most accessible way.”