Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy as the fourth movie in the series. Controversially, the film was not released in theaters in the United States, where it is only available to stream on Peacock. The movie was, however, released internationally in markets such as the UK and .

Per The Numbers, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy's box office has pushed the franchise past a major worldwide milestone. Despite not being available in US theaters, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy currently sits at a $71.5 million gross worldwide. This has brought the Bridget Jones tetrology past an impressive $800 million worldwide cumulative gross, with a total of $815.5 million and counting.

Brennan Klein, the reporter behind ScreenRant's weekly Box Office Newsletter, had this to say in reaction to the franchise's performance:

Clearly you should never underestimate that intrepid singleton Bridget Jones. She is now in the Top 150 movie franchises of all time, and her movies have outpaced the collective grosses of blockbuster franchises including National Treasure, Predator, Beverly Hills Cop, Step Up, Final Destination, The Purge, and many more. But were distributors wrong to underestimate her enough to keep her away from theaters Stateside? With the caveat that a theatrical release is basically always the best move for actually making money in the cinema marketplace, I understand their trepidation.

Domestic profits for the first three movies shrank drastically at an average rate of -42% per movie, compared to international markets’ much more favorable -15% average. It was categorically the wrong move not to give Mad About the Boy a go at the domestic box office, but it seems like distributors were perhaps keen to avoid embarrassing themselves in the same way as the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, a cataclysmic box office failure that had many issues with connecting to audiences worldwide, though the most publicized one was Americans’ bafflement at the British import.

What This Means For The Bridget Jones Movies

Skipping U.S. Theaters Might Have Been A Mistake

This recent box office milestone once again demonstrates how it may have been wise for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy to try out a U.S. theatrical release. While it is true that beyond the first film, the Bridget Jones movies have done far better overseas than in the United States, the fourth film is still gaining momentum at the worldwide box office. Given its success in multiple global markets, it very well may have been able to pull several million domestically, especially if its release was timed with Valentine's Day. Below, see a breakdown of the entire franchise's performance:

Despite the lack of US theatrical availability, the franchise milestone could compel the studio to keep following Bridget's life into another movie. The franchise has already seen its protagonist through love, loss, and parenthood, so it could easily get more runway as she continues life as a mother to the child she became pregnant with in Bridget Jones's Baby. If the fourth movie keeps doing well in global markets and on Peacock in the United States, the Bridget Jones franchise could make new box office milestones with a fifth installment.

How High Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy Could Have Climbed

A Domestic Gross Could Have Pushed Its Current Record Further

Even if Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy continued the franchise's box office slump in the domestic marketplace, it still would most likely have earned roughly $14 million in North America. This would have provided the current record with a boost, pushing the franchise's global total to nearly $830 million, without even counting the sequel's future grosses as it continues its run. That total would have seen it surge past the Rambo franchise ($818.9 million) on the all-time worldwide chart and approach the all-time gross of the Scary Movie movies ($830.9).

Rambo and Scary Movie are both franchises with five installments apiece, compared to Bridget Jones' four, though Scary Movie does have a sixth movie in development.

However, the franchise's fate could have been even better. The movie's international grosses are even better than the previous sequels in their markets at this point in the run. This, combined with the fact that Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy reviews have earned the movie a Certified Fresh 88% Rotten Tomatoes score, could mean that the movie would have behaved similarly in the U.S. Especially in the wake of a runaway rom-com success like 2023's Anyone But You, which grossed $88.3 million domestically, it is entirely possible that the new Zellweger movie could have grossed $50 million or more.

[The Bridget Jones franchise could] have launched up the chart past Jaws...

With that kind of extra boost, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy could have potentially pushed the overall franchise's gross to a minimum of $865.5 million if it had been given a domestic release. If it had earned that total, not only would it have outgrossed Rambo and Scary Movie, it also would have launched up the chart past Jaws ($833.1 million), The Expendables ($840.8 million), Rush Hour ($849.3 million), and Halloween ($855.1 million), with its sights on Home Alone ($866.4 million).

Our Take On The Bridget Jones Box Office Milestone

This Is Especially Rare For Rom-Coms

$800 million is a hefty sum for any non-superhero franchise, let alone a romantic comedy series. A potential Bridget Jones 5 could easily put the franchise past the $1 billion mark, as it would have to make less than $200 million to do so. Especially if the franchise pivots back to releasing in the United States, it seems likely that another movie after Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy could do well and make Bridget Jones into a rare $1 billion rom-com franchise.

Source: The Numbers