Celine Song’s Materialists has raced to $31m in North America through A24 and an early $10m internationally via Sony boosted by calibrated campai
Celine Song’s Materialists has raced to $31m in North America through A24 and an early $10m internationally via Sony boosted by calibrated campaigns that are tapping into an underserved audience’s enduring love for the romantic comedy.
Two years after A24 released Song’s first feature, the Oscar-nominated romantic drama Past Lives, which opened in June 2023 and finished on $11.3m in North America, the company has reunited on the filmmaker’s latest love triangle story with producers Killer Films and 2AM.
For the release, the trick was to appeal not just to romantic comedy fans, but audiences who were interested in the return of an acclaimed filmmaker with a predilection for nuanced storytelling.
A starry cast with sturdy chemistry has helped. Unlike Song’s debut, which featured experienced, albeit lesser-known, actors anchored by a breakout performance from Greta Lee, Materialists boasts household names in Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans.
But before the A-list cast were deployed in service to the story of an elite New York matchmaker attracted to a wealthy man and her less well-off ex, A24 worked to spark conversation. The campaign needed to capture the subtleties of a story about contemporary dating.
Ahead of the June 13 release, A24 released three distinct trailers to to try to capture the tonal intricacies of the film. The first on March 18 introduced the leads. The second on May 8, had a more nostalgic feel, aiming to recall the 1990s, a halcyon age of romantic comedies that produced celebrated titles including Pretty Woman, Notting Hill, and You’ve Got Mail.
The third trailer drop on May 22 was a pointed, provocative homage to ancient Mastercard commercials and played with the idea of a person’s value in the dating economy.
On June 6, A24 launched the menofny.com website to gather intelligence on the attributes of anonymous single men from New York and list their likes and dislikes in potential partners. The resulting “romantic value” scores fed into a live ticker at the New York Stock Exchange and appeared on mobile billboards throughout the city.
The campaign leaned into the amiable chemistry between the three leads. Besides print and online interviews, they participated gamely in question-and-answer formats like Vogue’s Off The Cuff and LADbible Entertainment’s Would You Rather?, and Hot Ones, an increasingly popular promotional staging post that requires subjects to discuss their careers while eating chicken wings dipped in progressively hotter sauces. Poster art featured all three leads together and as individuals.
The opening weekend proved a solid counterpoint to How To Train Your Dragon and holdovers Lilo & Stitch, Ballerina and Karate Kid: Legends. Exit polls with audiences revealed the film was most popular with under-35 women. New York and Los Angeles were predictably the major markets for the film, but there have been gigantic turnouts in other key metropolitan areas including Boston, Dallas, Miami, and Phoenix.
Materialists opened on $11.3m from 2,844 locations to deliver A24’s third-highest debut after Civil War on $25.5m in April 2024 and Hereditary on $13.6m in June 2018. Three weeks later it has demonstrated solid legs with holds on about 49% and heads into its fourth weekend over the Fourth Of July holiday in eighth place and will play in fewer than 1,931 sites.
International roll-out
The film is in the early stages of international release. It had already earned $10m since July 1 from around 22% of the international footprint, buoyed by $3.7m from Australia, and a raft of mostly Eastern European territories. Materialists opens in France and Belgium this week, and Latin America at the end of July. The Uk release is set for August 15, a time when few specifically female-oriented films are opening in the territory.
A24 said it has exchanged information and some materials with Sony’s international distribution team – as the partners have done on Sally Hawkins horror Bring Her Back, which stands at $19.3m after five weekends in North America and opens in the UK on July 26.
Sony had enjoyed recent success with romance films, having released the broadly entertaining romantic comedy Anyone But You in overdue 2023 onwards, and the more sedate, issue-driven It Ends With Us in autumn 2024.
On Materialists, the decision was made to lean into the film’s fun and frothy side. Alhtough the three leads have been unable to travel due to commitments, Sony is using behind-the-scenes footage of the stars discussing their favourite romantic films in its materials. It established characters through a one-sheet and single international trailer that focus more on the dating process itself.
Sony has also created a series of “girls night out” advance screenings in Australia and Netherlands; women-only events promoted in cinema lobbies, on social platforms, and media portals.
While US box office is a vital component of a film’s overall success, it lacks the promotional resonance it once carried through into international markets. Instead, favourable reviews on film and culture websites and platforms tend to galvanise international audiences these days. A solid rating on Rotten Tomatoes counts for a lot, too (Materialists is currently at 88%). In that regard, North America and the international arena are in lockstep.
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