Bridget: “I will not fuck it up again, Mum.” Mum: “Bridget! Language!” Bridget: “Sorry. I will not f**k it up again… mother.” Bridget Jones, the eternally endearing British self-professed ‘spinster’ never f**ks it up, because the Bridget Jones franchise never misses. It has spanned a quarter of a century, four feature length films and grossed over $800 million at the worldwide box office, with a fourth (and allegedly last) installment on the way next week. Despite how lucrative the upside can be, films for the female movie going audience are few and far between.
In Hollywood the going wisdom has been make it Marvel or make it a kids movie. These are generally accepted as gospel, but film successes in the past few years have shown how lucrative the often-overlooked female audience is. Barbie in 2023 broke box office records, fans flocking to the cinema in their droves in pink because they could. The good news kept on rolling the following year with It Ends With Us in August 2024 which was another exceptional demonstration of the power of the UK audience, making nearly £22 million at the box office. The fourth and allegedly last installment of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is already causing a stir, as pre-sales are looking better than Barbie at the same stage a week out from release.
But all these stats aside studios rarely fill out their slate with female-driven films and it’s to their detriment. Even in the US there is no theatrical release for Bridget Jones, instead there is a deal with NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, potentially a short-sighted decision given the pre-sales. Forbes estimate that women account for up to 70% of consumer purchasing decisions, so why is purchasing power not taken into account with films? With little output to be found in a light slate, it becomes a vicious cycle of no product, no purchase. If you don’t build it, they won’t come.
For the millennials among us, the first Bridget Jones in 2001 passed us by as we had other things to worry about like making sure we fed our Tamagotchi’s on time. So really it was only when Bridget Jones’ Baby came out in 2016 were we suitably adult enough to fully appreciate her bumbling, endearing way of meandering through life. The Baby one was for many of us, our first encounter with Bridget in a meaningful way, and now as many of us are the age Bridget was in the first one maybe it’s come full circle for us. That in itself shows that the audience has in fact grown over time, and there is a loyal audience who know what they like – and they continue to like Bridget, just the way she is.
FILM FOR THOUGHT 