Girls Trip, hands-down the funniest comedy of the year, is set to hit $100 million in gross sales this weekend.
The Malcolm D. Lee-film about a trip to ESSENCE Fest starring Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Regina Hall and Tiffany Haddish did amazing numbers when it first hit theaters and the momentum has carried on. As noted by IMDB filings, with a budget of $19 million Girls Trip made $31 million in the first weekend and is now at a total of $99 million in gross ticket sales.
It is also the highest grossing R-Rated comedy to hit theaters this year.
Internationally, Girls Trip doing very well making $7.4M in the United Kingdom —potentially surpassing Get Out there which ended its run at $12.7M, as reported by Deadline. The comedy was also No. 1 in South Africa for two weekend in a row with close to a half million.
As producer Will Packard’s third major hit —in addition to Ride Along and Straight Outta Compton— the producer has solidified his place in the $100 million movie club. But it’s also a major moment for co-writer, Tracy Y. Oliver.
The talent who worked closely with Kenya Barris (Black-ish) on this film, is the first African-American female screenwriter to have a $100 million film made.
“We wanted to make sure that we did a love story between black women,” Oliver told Fader. “We knew we wanted to have men as eye candy in the movie, but I was adamant that I wanted it to be about sisterhood and black female friendships. I wanted it to be about a love story between these women who’d been friends for 15-20 years and seen each other through ups and downs.”
“We knew that was the core and the heart of it and to also make sure that it was fun and entertaining. We wanted it to be a balance with a lot of ridiculous jokes, like the grapefruit moment. The studio, Malcolm, and Will wanted to make sure that it was going to be rated R.”