{"id":516589,"date":"2026-04-06T22:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/516589\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:10:09","slug":"the-drama-solidifies-zendaya-as-our-new-indie-box-office-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/516589\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Drama’ Solidifies Zendaya as Our New Indie Box Office Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re always looking for the movie stars who can genuinely open a movie, the people whom you go to the theater to see because of them. A few weeks ago, we argued that Ryan Gosling was now on that relatively short list<\/a>. But if you want to make an indie movie an event, are there reliable names to whom you can turn?<\/p>\n

With A24<\/a>\u2018s \u201cThe Drama<\/a>\u201d pulling in $14.3 million at the domestic box office this weekend, placing it among some of the better A24 openings ever (No. 2 for an A24 wide release behind only \u201cCivil War\u201d), especially for an original, non-genre film<\/a>, we\u2019d argue Zendaya<\/a> deserves the crown as our new Indie Box Office Queen.<\/p>\n

Of course, Zendaya is a movie star (and also Meechee<\/a>); she\u2019s a big part of the success of franchises like \u201cSpider-Man,\u201d \u201cDune,\u201d and is the star of \u201cEuphoria.\u201d But \u201cThe Drama<\/a>\u201d is the second independent, original story she has helped open between this and 2024\u2019s \u201cChallengers<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"LOS<\/a> \"Bob<\/a> <\/p>\n

In fact, \u201cThe Drama\u201d opened only slightly behind \u201cChallengers\u201d ($15 million), and young people especially turned out because of Zendaya\u2019s presence, alongside Robert Pattinson. Eighty percent of the audience for \u201cThe Drama\u201d was under 35, with about 30 percent between 18-24, compared to just 76 percent for \u201cChallengers,\u201d and the gender-skew for \u201cThe Drama\u201d was 68 percent female to 58 percent for \u201cChallengers.\u201d Additionally, exit polls for \u201cThe Drama\u201d revealed that 70 percent of the audience went to the film because it starred Zendaya and Pattinson.<\/p>\n

You could argue she hasn\u2019t had her \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d yet, a non-franchise studio blockbuster that proves she can open any film. But she\u2019d do good to keep some A24 projects or the like in her back pocket, even as she awaits the release of \u201cDune: Part Three,\u201d \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day,\u201d and Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d <\/p>\n

Like her \u201cDune\u201d co-star Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, she knows how to reach the TikTok crowd and do so with thought-provoking, even controversial movies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"CHALLENGERS,Zendaya in \u2018Challengers\u2019\u00a9MGM\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

Who else could plausibly be vying for the throne for Indie Box Office Queen? Kristen Stewart has had an especially long indie track record ever since leaving behind her \u201cTwilight\u201d days. But \u201cThe Drama\u201d has already surpassed Stewart\u2019s \u201cLove Lies Bleeding\u201d or the Princess Diana film \u201cSpencer.\u201d Her two biggest indie hits were over a decade ago with \u201cCaf\u00e9 Society\u201d and \u201cStill Alice.\u201d <\/p>\n

Zendaya\u2019s fellow \u201cEuphoria\u201d breakout Sydney Sweeney also loves doing indies in between more commercial fare, but she\u2019s had a rough streak between \u201cAmericana,\u201d \u201cEden,\u201d \u201cReality,\u201d and \u201cChristy.\u201d Her best performance from the indie side was the horror film \u201cImmaculate\u201d for Neon that she also produced, which brought in $34.9 million globally. <\/p>\n

Florence Pugh and Dakota Johnson might be the other two names who are on the podium with Zendaya, as each have their own A24 hits, with Pugh backing \u201cMidsommar\u201d ($48.5 million WW) and \u201cWe Live in Time\u201d ($58.4 million WW) and Johnson most recently fronting \u201cMaterialists\u201d ($107 million WW) but also \u201cSplitsville,\u201d \u201cCha Cha Real Smooth,\u201d and \u201cDaddio.\u201d And we\u2019ll see what Anne Hathaway can do with A24\u2019s \u201cMother Mary\u201d after she had some underwhelming results with \u201cEileen\u201d and \u201cArmageddon Time.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMaterialists\u201d is A24\u2019s closest comp to \u201cThe Drama,\u201d a movie that also twisted traditional rom-com elements<\/a> and has even sparked some conversation over each film\u2019s marketing. \u201cMaterialists\u201d opened to $11.3 million domestic and legged out to $36.5 million domestic, with the bulk of its haul coming from international box office that powered it to over $100 million globally. \u201cThe Drama\u201d even had a better CinemaScore than \u201cMaterialists,\u201d a B versus a B-. With a similar multiple, it suggests that \u201cThe Drama\u201d could leg out to around $45 million domestic, which would easily cover a budget we\u2019re hearing is around $25 million. <\/p>\n

Those certainly aren\u2019t \u201cSpider-Man\u201d numbers, but they\u2019re big ones in what is the first for a huge year ahead for Zendaya, our official new indie queen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re always looking for the movie stars who can genuinely open a movie, the people whom you go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[36317,96,2332,2839,89493,56,54,55,24489],"class_list":{"0":"post-516589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-a24","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-film","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-the-drama","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-zendaya"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}