Jennifer Lawrence’s No Hard Feelings made $85 million at the box office, but does this haul make the raunchy comedy a success or failure?
SUMMARY
- No Hard Feelings made $85 million at the box office, but its opening weekend performance was lackluster compared to other films.
- The film had a budget of $45 million, with a significant portion going toward Jennifer Lawrence's $25 million salary. It didn't make enough profit to be considered successful.
- R-rated comedies, like No Hard Feelings, have been struggling at the box office in recent years, partly due to the rise of streaming platforms. However, it may find more success once it hits streaming services like Netflix.
No Hard Feelings is now on demand, but how did it do at the box office? This was Jennifer Lawrence’s first film after giving birth. She wasn’t even planning on working but said the script was the “funniest thing I had ever read” (via Good Morning America). No Hard Feelings is also her first big comedy, so it was a change for the 33-year-old actress.
Lawrence plays Maddie Barker, who is at risk of losing her house when her car gets taken because of a court order, making it hard for her to be an Uber driver on the side. She finds a Craiglist ad for parents looking for a girlfriend for their 19-year-old son to bring him out of his shell before college. In exchange, they would give this person a car. She takes the gig and finds it challenging to loosen the boy up, leading to many funny things.
No Hard Feelings Made $85M At The Box Office
No Hard Feelings only made $15 million on opening weekend. It went on to make $50 million in the U.S. and only $34 million internationally. That means the film totaled $85 million at the box office (via Box Office Mojo). No Hard Feelings came in at number four at the box office behind Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse at number one, Elemental at number two, and The Flash at number three (via Box Office Mojo). These movies also had already been out for one to two weeks, so No Hard Feelings didn’t exactly make a splash.
No Hard Feelings' Box Office Means Jennifer Lawrence's Movie Lost Money
No Hard Feelings’ budget was $45 million (via The Numbers), which is high for a R-rated movie. Lawrence’s salary for the film was reportedly $25 million. So a big chunk of the budget went to its leading lady. For a film to be successful at the box office, it needs to make 2 to 2.5 times the budget. The comedy only made 1.9 times, which means it lost money.
Why No Hard Feelings Wasn't A Box Office Success
No Hard Feelings made most of its money domestically. It did very poorly internationally. While the hope is always that a film does well at the U.S. box office, doing well worldwide is also essential for a movie's success. The other problem is that R-rated comedies have been having a hard time at the box office lately. Gone are the days of Wedding Crashers (2005) or The Hangover (2009). The industry was different back then. People went to the theater for those, but now streaming makes it hard for these movies to break through.
There was a concern before opening weekend that No Hard Feelings wouldn’t do well because it is an R-rated comedy. While Lawrence is a big name and a draw, most of Lawrence’s top blockbusters have been ensemble casts or Hunger Games, which launched her into fame. It’s unfortunate that her first foray into comedy wasn’t the success she would have hoped it to be, but that likely won’t affect her career. The actress has five upcoming projects already. So she’s jumping right back in after giving birth to her son, and this will probably be a blip in her career.
No Hard Feelings has a chance of doing better streaming. It’s available on VOD now and will eventually be on Netflix. Many people interested in raunchy comedies will likely find the film when it hits streaming. So while its time at the box office wasn’t great, its streaming life could see many people getting excited about it. Lawrence fans may even choose to check it out when it’s on VOD. There are so many more options for consuming content now, and big action movies or visually spectacular films are the ones that people tend to go to the cinema for. Otherwise, many people choose to wait until they can watch it at home.
While No Hard Feelings was not a success by blockbuster standards, it may be a turning point for R-rated movies that have struggled for the past decade. No Hard Feelings broke a record for the 2020s box office by becoming the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of the decade. It goes to show how poorly R-rated comedies have done and that maybe these fans are starting to head back to the theaters for these types of films.
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