Box Office: Zendaya’s ‘Challengers’ Starts Off With $1.9M in Previews

Challengers has finally taken to the court.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the movie earned $1.9 million in box office previews for MGM and Amazon Studios as it prepares to open everywhere on Friday. The majority came from Thursday night shows, but there was also a special Imax sneak earlier this week.

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The critically acclaimed movie features Zendaya as a tennis player caught up in a love triangle. She stars opposite Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor.

“Smart, seductive and bristling with sexual tension, Challengers is arguably Luca Guadagnino’s most purely pleasurable film to date; it’s certainly his lightest and most playful,” writes THR‘s David Rooney in his rave review. “As agile and dynamic as the many tennis matches it depicts, the love-triangle drama pits the rivalry on the court of two former best friends against their competing desire for a self-possessed woman whose hunger to win is not diminished by a knee injury that cuts short her own career.”

Challengers was supposed to open last year in time for awards season, but MGM and Amazon scuttled those plans because of the SAG-AFTRA strike and the ban on talent doing press. Zendaya in particular has a huge social reach needed for the film.

If tracking is correct, Challengers has a shot at winning the weekend with $15 million, a strong number for what’s more of an arthouse movie than a commercial play.

Also opening nationwide is Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company’s Unsung Hero, which earned $470,000 in Thursday previews. All told, the faith-based film has collected $1.67 from early-access screenings.

Based on a true story, Unsung Hero follows David Smallbone as he moves his family from Australia to the U.S. searching for a brighter future after his successful music company collapses. He and his wife begin to realize the musical talent of their seven children; three of them who would go on to become two successful acts — KING + COUNTRY and Rebecca St. James.

Unsung Hero is on course to open in the $5 million to $6 million range against a budget of just $6 million.

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