Mad About the Boy breaks UK box office romcom record

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Mad About the Boy breaks *** box office romcom record

Paul Glynn

Culture reporter

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The film finds Renée Zellweger’s now widowed character navigating modern dating and motherhood

The return of Bridget Jones has earned the best box office opening ever for a romantic comedy in the *** and Ireland, according to Universal.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Renée Zellweger’s fourth film as the much-loved-yet-shambolic diarist, made £11.8m in its first four days after its release on Thursday.

It beat the record previously held by the second Bridget Jones film, Edge of Reason, which took £10m in 2004 – although that figure would be worth more today with inflation.

The new film proved more popular than Captain America: Brave New World in the *** this weekend. The new Marvel film dominated box offices in North America – where Bridget Jones is not getting a cinema release.

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Bridget has a young new love interest in the film called Roxster, played by Leo Woodall

The movie has gone straight to streaming in the US via the Peacock platform.

The Telegraph’s film critic Robbie Collin told

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that was because Americans “don’t care about Bridget” and that the character – created by British writer Helen Fielding – remains “an extremely local concern”.

However, Bridget did also top the weekend box office rankings in countries including Poland, the Netherlands and Norway, Universal said.

Mad About the Boy’s first weekend in the *** and Ireland was the biggest of the year so far, but was below the openings registered by blockbusters like Deadpool & Wolverine, Wicked and Moana 2 in 2024.

*The rest of this story containers spoilers*

The fourquel finds the titular hero now a widowed single mother, navigating the challenges of parenthood, work and modern dating.

She finds herself re-entering the dating world and must choose between a younger man she has fallen for (Leo Woodall) and her son’s science teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

Hugh Grant reprises his role, as does Emma Thompson.

Mixed reviews

While fans flocked to see it, the Guardian’s film critic Pete Bradshaw was not impressed,

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.

He noted how there were “giant laughs for Hugh Grant” but that the “weepie sequel is strangely dazed”.

“With the exception of Grant and Thompson, really all of the actors are phoning (or rather voice-noting) it in, though this is a function of the material,” he wrote.

However,

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, with reviewer Clarisse Loughrey calling it “vulnerable, honest and very funny”.

She said director Michael Morris “deals with Bridget’s combative love life with far more care and subtlety than first sequel The Edge of Reason ever did”.

She added: “When it comes to Mad About the Boy, it’s less that Bridget Jones has finally matured, and more that she’s shown us how human she really is.”

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