For eight years, every Zendaya film that opened in theaters landed at the top of the domestic box office. Six consecutive releases, spanning superhero blockbusters, science fiction epics and an intimate tennis drama, all debuted at number one during their respective opening weekends. That run has now come to an end.
The Drama, the dark comedy directed by Kristoffer Borgli and distributed by A24, opened in third place domestically over Easter weekend, becoming the first Zendaya film to miss the top spot since Smallfoot in 2018. The film earned $14.4 million in its opening three days, a strong result by A24 standards and enough to surpass the studio’s 2025 romantic comedy Materialists, but not enough to challenge the competition at the top of the chart.
What it was up against
The Easter weekend landscape was unusually crowded at the top. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the animated sequel from Nintendo and Universal, dominated with a massive $130.9 million three-day domestic opening, the biggest of the year so far and a performance that made it an immediate frontrunner for the highest-grossing Hollywood film of 2026. The film also recorded the biggest opening day of the year with $48.3 million domestically on Friday alone.
For context, the original The Super Mario Bros. Movie opened over the same Easter weekend in 2023 and earned $147 million across three days, one of the strongest holiday openings in box office history. The sequel did not quite match that benchmark but still delivered an extraordinary result that would have buried most competition regardless of the calendar date.
Finishing second was Ryan Gosling’s space epic Project Hail Mary, which held impressively in its third weekend with enough momentum to stay ahead of The Drama despite already having several weeks of theatrical release behind it. The film had previously set the year’s opening weekend record with $80.5 million before being surpassed by the Mario sequel.
What the film is and why it has sparked conversation
The Drama pairs Zendaya with Robert Pattinson as an engaged couple whose relationship fractures after Zendaya’s character Emma discloses a dark secret. The film also stars Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie, Hailey Benton Gates and Zoë Winters and is produced by Ari Aster, the filmmaker behind Hereditary. The combination of that creative pedigree and a reportedly controversial plot twist drew significant attention and discourse ahead of release, with some critics weighing in sharply before the film even reached theaters.
That conversation, while not enough to push The Drama to number one, positioned the film as something more culturally present than its ticket sales alone might suggest. A24 releases rarely compete on pure box office scale but often generate outsized critical and cultural attention, and The Drama appears to be following that pattern.
The streak that preceded this moment
The six Zendaya films that opened at number one between 2019 and 2024 represent one of the more remarkable runs any actor has assembled in recent memory. Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019 and Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021 were among the highest-grossing entries in the Marvel franchise. Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two helped establish her as a central figure in one of the decade’s most ambitious science fiction series. Space Jam: A New Legacy opened atop the chart in 2021, and Challengers gave her a number one debut in a mid-budget original film in 2024, a category where top openings have become increasingly rare.
What comes next
The third-place debut does not appear to signal any lasting shift in Zendaya’s position within the industry. Her upcoming release schedule is among the most anticipated of any actor working today. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is set to arrive in July, followed two weeks later by Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In December she reunites with both Pattinson and Timothée Chalamet in Dune: Part Three. The opportunity to reopen at number one arrives sooner than most actors would dare expect.
