Why Prayers Weren’t Answered For ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ At Box Office: It’s Complicated
deadline.comAt a time when theatrical is looking to distinguish itself with more prolific fare than the factory conveyor belt of humdrum product coming from streaming, it’s with great upset to hear that Lionsgate’s feature adaptation of Judy Blume’s pinnacle 1970 novel Are You There God?
It’s Me, Margaret fell greatly short at the box office with a $6.8M opening; below both the $7M-$9M that the studio was seeing, and the more bullish $10M+ that rivals spotted.
Figuring out what went wrong here with Judy Blume’s first big screen Hollywood foray (her son Lawrence Blume previously directed an indie take of her 1981 novel, Tiger Eyes, which did $27K), which won over critics (99% certified fresh) and the few who bought tickets (A CinemaScore), has less to do with the commercial potential of the pic’s genre –movies based on female-skewing bestselling novels– and more to do with the feather-fish situation of Blume’s material.
Unlike Stephen King whose novels have continually been adapted to the big screen since his early days as an author (his 1974 novel Carrie being the first to hit theaters in 1976), Blume’s literary cannon never found its way into theaters, but rather TV (read, the 1978 made for TV movie based on her novel, Forever).
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