Joy Ride Hits A Speed Bump With $6 Million Opening Weekend

This weekend's box office battle is a three-way boxing match between Indiana Jones, some ghosts, and a faith-based indie movie about child trafficking — but while that makes for quite a fascinating fight, there's another new release making a quieter entrance onto big screens. R-rated comedy "Joy Ride," the directorial debut of "Crazy Rich Asians" screenwriter Adele Lim, has come in below earlier projections of an opening weekend between $7 million and $9 million. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie is instead on track to end up in sixth place with a domestic debut of $6 million.

The measure of box office success for "Joy Ride," as with all movies, depends on its budget. There's no verified info on that front yet, but the figure of $32 million has been floated, and that seems like a decent guesstimate: halfway between Billy Eichner's "Bros" ($22 million, with a plot that involves a lot less globetrotting) and recent release "No Hard Feelings" ($45 million, because Jennifer Lawrence doesn't come cheap). 

With that kind of budget in mind, $6 million opening doesn't bode well for breaking even at the box office, and "Joy Ride" will likely end up relying on VOD rentals and sales to turn a profit. It wouldn't be surprising to see this one rushed to streaming, so if you did want to catch it on the big screen, do so sooner rather than later. Since "Joy Ride" is cursed with a staggered international release, I unfortunately won't have the option here in the U.K. until August 4. Oddly enough, Australia got a day-and-date release for "Joy Ride" — a cause for celebration, since Australia usually has to wait for movies to be shipped over from the States on the back of a very slow-moving sea turtle.

It ain't easy being a comedy film in 2023, let alone an R-rated sex comedy. After the COVID-19 pandemic trained audiences to expect direct-to-streaming releases, an extra incentive is now needed to tempt people out to the theater: whether it's eye-popping IMAX spectacle ("Top Gun: Maverick," "Avatar: The Way of Water"), the rollercoaster-ride thrill of a horror movie ("M3GAN," "Evil Dead Rise"), or a major franchise (like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though even those movies have been struggling lately). While R-rated comedies like "American Pie" and "The Hangover" could once be relied upon to offer strong returns on modest budgets, they're now one of the toughest projects to land at the box office. Last year's highest-grossing comedy was "Jackass Forever," which grossed a modest $80 million worldwide even while arguably falling into the "spectacle" category.

"Joy Ride" does have some strong selling points, starting with an ensemble cast that includes recent Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu. It was well-reviewed, with a critic score of 91 percent on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing. But it feels like the movie's marketing lost momentum after the initial strong reviews out of SXSW in March, which were coupled with a hilarious first trailer. Perhaps Lionsgate lost confidence in the movie and scaled back promotional spending; around the /Film watercooler, a number of people (myself included) were surprised to learn it was out this week.

"No Hard Feelings" may also be providing some competition in the raunchy comedy genre — while also losing its own momentum due to the arrival of "Joy Ride." Deadline estimates "No Hard Feelings" will end its third weekend with a running domestic total of $40.3 million, but even when you add an international gross of $20 million (as of earlier this week), the movie is still unlikely to break even in theaters. Apparently even Jennifer Lawrence's star power has its limits.