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Over the Valentine’s Day weekend of 2025,Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boywas released. The fourth entry in the popularBridget Jonesfilm franchise, which began in 2001 with the critically acclaimedBridget Jones’s Diary, landed in theaters worldwide on Jun 02, 2025… except in the United States.If you lived in North America and wanted to seeBridget Jones’s latest adventure, you couldn’t see it on the big screen. Instead, the movie was released exclusively on the Universal streaming service Peacock. There is a good chance you might not have known there was a newBridget Jonesfilm, as the movie was seemingly dumped onto streaming with little fanfare.
While the idea of releasingBridget Jones: Mad About the Boyover Valentine’s Day weekend on streaming, so fans could watch it under some covers at home with a bottle of wine and some high-quality snacks, sounds like a good idea in theory, in actuality, it was a big mistake.Mad About the Boydelivered a record-breaking debut at the U.K. and Ireland box office, grossing $15.5 million over the first four days, marking the highest-grossing romantic comedy debut ever in the region previously held by none other thanBridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boyeasily beatCaptain America: Brave New Worldat the U.K. box officeand stands at an impressive $32 million worldwide total.
WhileCaptain America: Brave New Worldwas always going to dominate the North American box office over the Valentine’s Day/President’s Day weekend, Universal’s decision not to releaseBridget Jones: Mad About the Boyin theaters speaks to a larger frustrating trend. Studios have no faith in romance films to perform in theaters and send them straight to streaming. Yet recent box office suggests audiences are dying to see love stories on the big screen.
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy
What Was Universal Pictures Thinking With ‘Bridget Jones’?
Part of the thinking behind sendingBridget Jones: Mad About the Boystems from thebox office performance of the two prior sequels, 2004’sBridget Jones: The Edge of Reasonand 2016’sBridget Jones' Baby. 2001’sBridget Jones Diarywas a box office hit, grossing $71 million domestically and $334 million worldwide against a $10 million budget.Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reasongrossed $40 million domestically, which was its production budget, but even the $265 million worldwide total showed a decline among audiences.Bridget Jones’s Babyflopped in North America, grossing $24 million against a $35 million budget. However, international markets saved it, where it grossed $211 million worldwide, although there was a continued downward trend in the franchise box office.Bridget Joneshas always been a better box office performer in international markets than North America.
However,Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boyhad a few box office elements working in its favor. The first was Renée Zellweger, who earned her second Academy Award for Best Actress since the release of the previousBridget Jonesmovie, something that a savvy marketing department might have pushed. The film is directed by Michael Morris, who previously directed the acclaimedTo Leslie. Hugh Grant returns to the franchise andhas been on a career comebackthanks to films likePaddington 2,Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,Wonka, andHeretic.
How Is Hugh Grant Still Alive in the New Bridget Jones Movie? The Book Offers Clues
Hugh Grant is returning for Bridget Jones: Mad About a Boy, and while the third film seemingly killed him off, the book offers clues for his return.
Another factor working inBridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’s favor was that the prime Valentine’s Day release date also happened to align with a four-day holiday weekend. TheBridget Jonesseries has never had a particular season associated with its releases, as bothBridget Jones DiaryandBridget Jones Babyopened in relatively slower box office months of April and September, respectively. WithBridget Jonesbeing a romantic franchise, Valentine’s Day weekend was the perfect time to release it.Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy would have made the movie good date night counter-programming forCaptain America: Brave New World, but also likely could have cashed in on theGalentine’s Day celebrations.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boylikely wasn’t going to compete withCaptain America: Brave New Worldfor audiences, but instead, attract a different audience member out to theaters that weekend and could have seen an overall boost in theater attendees. Despite all the hype aroundBarbienheimer and various studiosseemingly trying to chase that trend, the obvious pairing of action-heavyCaptain America: Brave New Worldwith romanceBridget Jones: Mad About the Boyseemed to be lost on Universal. It is absurd to think thatBridget Jones: Mad About the Boycouldn’t have generated a decent box office haul over the weekend and could have taken the number 2 spot fromPaddington in Peru.
Romance Movies Keep Getting Sent to Streaming
At one point, rom-coms used to be one of the most reliable box office money makers, with 1999’sNotting HillandRunaway Brideboth grossing over $100 million at the domestic box office. By the 2010s, however, the genre was falling out of favor with general audiences. By the timeBridget Jones Babybombed at the North American box office in 2016, the genre was migrating to streaming platforms as they began experimenting with their own original films. DespiteCrazy Rich Asianslighting up the box office in 2018, that same year, Netflix releasedSet it Up,To All the Boys I Loved Before, andThe Kissing Boothstraight to streaming. Once, these films would have been solid hits in theaters, but now, they are movies audiences could watch at home, feeding into a narrative that this type of movie didn’t warrant a movie theater, which should be saved for big epic blockbusters.
The COVID-19 pandemic sped this process up, as the idea was that romantic dramas and comedies were cheap to produce and could be released quickly onto streaming platforms. While this might have been necessary in 2020, romance movies likePalm Springs,Happiest Season, andThe Half of Itwere much-needed viewing experiences in a year without theaters. Yet, five years later, romance movies featuring big stars are still sent straight to streaming unceremoniously in a move that no other genre would.
Movies like Anne Hathaway’sThe Idea of You, Camila Mendes’UpgradedandMúsica, David Johnson’sRye Lane, Lili Reinhart’sLook Both Ways, orI Want You Back, which features stars like Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Scott Eastwood, Gina Rodriguez, Manny Jacinto, and Clark Backo all likely might have done decent numbers at the box office if they had been given a chance. Yet a vicious cycle has unfolded, wherestudios don’t release romances in theaters anymore because they don’t think the audience will see them, but they don’t give them a chance.
How Romance Films Can Make a Return to Popularity
The comeback of romance films can be a multifaceted process that will hopefully make them as popular now as they used to be in their prime.
And the few times studios have rolled the dice on a romance, both high concept or just a standard romantic-comedy, audiences have gone to see them, likely stemming from a nostalgia for the genre. Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum’sThe Lost City, a throwback to adventure comedies likeRomancing the Stone, grossed $192 million worldwide. George Clooney and Julia Robert’sTicket to Paradisesold a vacation romance with two reliable stars, and it grossed $168 million worldwide. One of the big surprise box office success stories in recent years wasSydney Sweeny and Glen Powell’sAnyone but You, which grossed $220 million worldwide off a $6 million budget. Clearly, there is an appetite for romance movies in theaters. Yet despite Glen Powell’s star power, Netflix acquired the steamy romanceHit Manand dropped it on streaming to where it was sadly overlooked.
Despite the box office pointing to an audience wanting more romance on film, Universal Pictures decided to send the latest film in a popular romance franchise to streaming, likely leaving millions of dollars on the table. Even though Universal Pictures decided to bump this film down to a streaming debut, it doesn’t make it any less worthy.Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boyis a very different film for the franchise, one that is less romantic and more bittersweet, but it is just as good asBridget Jones Babyand could be thesecond-best film in the franchisebehind the iconic first film.Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boyis streaming onPeacock.
