A24‘s romance feature The Drama starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson indeed has engaged moviegoers around the globe, crossing $100M today to become the studio’s fifth film to hit the century mark in its 13-year history.
Writer-director Kristoffer Borgli’s $28M net Square Peg production also has bested the global take of Zendaya’s previous non-IP movie, 2024’s Challengers, which ended its run at $96.1M WW. It’s a commendable feat: The Drama isn’t your run-of-the-mill romance movie, dealing with a rather morbid topic. At the same time, there’s a relatable theme for couples to walk away with: Do we really know the person we’re about to marry?
With Zendaya’s box office power exploding early on in her career off such franchises as Sony/Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man and Warner Bros/Legendary’s Dune, The Drama, like Challengers before it, shows the 2x Emmy-winning Euphoria actress’ worth when it comes to being attached to original fare at the B.O. The Drama opened to $14.3M stateside, not far from Challengers‘ $15M, and $28M worldwide. Current running cumes are $60M abroad and $40M stateside.
A24’s previous $100M-plus grossing titles are Marty Supreme ($181M WW, 2025), Everything Everywhere All at Once ($148M WW, 2022), Civil War ($127M WW, 2024) and The Materialists ($108M WW, 2025). A24 sold foreign on The Drama out of Cannes last year.
The Drama‘s success boils down to a marketing vortex of Zendaya between her launching the Dune: Part Three trailer and ahead of Euphoria Season 3’s premiere, which propelled this feature from being edgy to a destination for women (60%) as well as those under the age of 35 (80%). By comparison, The Materialists saw 70% of its audience under 35 and 70% female, while Marty Supreme pulled in an under-35 crowd of 70%. Also, it’s not just about Zendaya, rather 80% of audiences polled by A24 said they bought tickets for both the Euphoria star as well as Pattinson. Both have upcoming movies together including Dune: Part 3 and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
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The offshore campaign was in sync with U.S., taking a wedding experiential event positioning. The gist throughout: Zendaya’s “Something borrowed/something blue” outfit reveal arc at events from L.A. to France to Rome, but there also was a sundry of wedding stunts.
Read, Zendaya and Drama co-star Alana Haim showed up to witness a couple’s Las Vegas wedding at the Chapel of the Bells back in March. Zendaya showed up with her stylist Law Roach to surprise a bride-to-be, styled her dress and even bought the gown for her.
In France, The Drama became a young fashion-celebrity cultural event covered across Vogue France, Elle France. Pattinson and Zendaya appeared on the show Quotidien, visitedthe Muséedes Arts Forainsand theEiffel Tower with the latter’s partner Tom Holland making a surprise appearance and making the paparazzi go wild.
Zendaya and Pattinson visitedPiazza del Campidoglio in Italy, where the duo were welcomed by Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri.The Campidoglio (the Capitoline Hill) is a prestigious monument and an iconic site dating to Imperial Rome. It is the seat of the mayor of Rome, but most important, it is the prominent location where civil marriage ceremonies take place.
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Separately, Taiwandid their own version of a wedding chapel stunt for the film:
Cai Chang
Breaking down territory grosses for The Drama, the pic produced by Ari Aster, Lars Knudsen and Tyler Campellone posted the highest opening for an A24 production ever in the UK — where it’s distributed by EFD — with $2.8M (that’s not counting We Live in Time at $3.5M, a local title that A24 acquired). Current UK cume is $10.6M.
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Metropolitan distributed The Drama in France, where opened to $1.8M, repping the second-best debut ever for an A24 movie behind only Marty Supreme. Current cume there is $5.3M.
Italy was the second-best bow for A24 in the country with a $1.4M opening, also behind Marty Supreme. Current total via distrib I Wonder is $5.2M.
In Turkey, The Drama posted the best opening ever for an A24 title, surpassing Marty Supreme, the current cume is $832K via TME. The Drama also had A24 opening records in Mexico via Sun ($805K opening besting Talk to Me, $3.9M total) and Poland via Vertical (current cume $1.9M, ahead of Marty Supreme). Other territory grosses are Germany (Leonine, $3.4M), Australia (VVS, $3.4M cume), Brazil (Sun, $2.2M cume), Netherlands (The Searchers, $1.8M total), Switzerland (Ascot Elite, $1M), Belgium and Luxembourg (The Searchers, $956K), Taiwan (Cai Chang, $933K),Denmark (Nordisk, $702K) and Argentina (Sun, $683K).