14 DAY TRIAL // Jennifer Lopez has been working overtime to get people to want to see her latest movie, a thriller called “The Boy Next Door,” in which she plays a mature woman unhappy in her marriage who turns to a younger neighbor for solace and discovers he’s pretty much insane.
All her efforts have paid off, as the thriller is billed to open big at the North American box office, despite the fact that it was made on a teensy budget and, more importantly, that initial reviews warn of a huge disaster. A so-bad-it’s-good-type of disaster, but a disaster nonetheless.
“The Boy Next Door” is poised for box office glory, despite all odds
Variety reports that initial figures for the opening day of the film are very promising: it opened on Thursday night to $500,000 (€446,170) in ticket sales at 1,869 locations across the US. That might not seem like a lot, but bear in mind this: this is not a huge release like, say, a Marvel superhero pic would get.
Neither was “The Boy Next Door” made on the kind of budget big studio films get: it only cost $4 million (€3.56 million) to make and most marketing was carried by Lopez herself, and she probably didn’t charge for that because she really, really wanted the film to be a success.
Even better, the film is poised to make between $12 million (€10.7 million) to $15 million (€13.3 million) by the end of the weekend, which would make it a certified hit.
Ironically, reviews for the film are very negative. It did not screen in advance, so viewers couldn’t be talked out of wanting to see it on opening weekend, but shortly after the premiere, it was already dismissed by critics – and we all know how fast word of mouth travels these days.
On Rotten Tomatoes, “The Boy Next Door” stands at just 13% fresh (positive) reviews, which makes it “rotten.” Critics found everything about it bad, from the Lifetime-type of dialog, to the poor editing and directing style, the acting and the surprising lacks of thrills for a movie that’s billed a “thriller.”
The unlikely upside
There is a silver lining to this, though: “The Boy Next Door” is qualified a genuine guilty pleasure, the type of movie that’s so spectacularly bad that it’s good. The love scenes between Jennifer Lopez (who, no, did not use a body double) and her much younger star Ryan Guzman have proved an expected hit with audiences.
More importantly though, this is a film that has 2 Latino leads, which is a complete rarity in Hollywood – and people are rushing to see it and talk about it afterwards. Yes, it’s mostly to make fun, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a step towards more diversity in the film industry.
There are even voices saying that “The Boy Next Door” might revive Jennifer Lopez’s career as an actress, which has been a dream of hers for many years. Sure, she had some hits, but many of her films were box office disasters, in addition to being panned by critics.
This thriller will be her big break in a very long time because it will show that she’s no longer box office poison. Again, it’s a small step towards making a name for herself as a thespian, but it’s one that had to be taken.
