Bridget Jones 4 breaks UK box office romcom record

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy has achieved the highest-ever opening for a romcom in the UK and Ireland, according to Universal.

The fourth movie in the franchise, set around the titular unlucky-in-love heroine, took $15.5m, (£12.3m) in its first weekend, beating Marvel’s first release of the year, Captain America: Brave New World.

It overtakes the second film in the franchise, Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason – the previous record holder, which took $13.1m (£10.4m).

Less of a household name in the US, Bridget’s latest adventure didn’t get a cinema release in the US, going straight to Universal’s streaming service Peacock.

The film’s success in the UK follows impressive pre-sales, which were better than those of the record-breaking Margot Robbie movie Barbie – one-half of last year’s “Barbenheimer” phenomenon.

Produced by Working Title – the production company behind British hits including Four Weddings And A Funeral, Love Actually and Notting Hill – Bridget Jones 4 is now their highest-ever opening.

It was also the franchise’s biggest opening in Poland, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

With hit-and-miss reviews from critics, audiences seem to be enjoying the show, rating the movie 86% fresh on film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

The character first appeared in 1995 as anonymous columns in The Independent written by journalist Helen Fielding. A word-of-mouth hit, Fielding’s four subsequent books about Bridget were bestsellers.

Speaking ahead of the film’s release, the film’s star, Renée Zellweger told Sky News playing Bridget was “the best job in the world”.

Starring in the latest instalment alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall, Zellweger went on: “I love her. I love her humour. I love her vulnerability. I love her imperfection. I love the opportunity to play out her miscalculating a plan and it maybe, surprising her in her execution. I love all of it.”

The first film earned Zellweger an Oscar nod for her portrayal of Bridget, and the character’s name has gone into the lexicon to describe a 30-something single woman on the lookout for love.

A polarizing character, while some loved the character’s relatability, others felt her obsession with her appearance and finding a man flew in the face of what it meant to be an independent woman.

Fielding has said the key to Bridget’s appeal lies in her revealing “the gap between how you feel you are supposed to be and how you really are inside”.

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is in cinemas now.