In my movie ROI database of over 2800 titles from 1924 to present, I have 21 titles starring George Clooney and 20 starring Julia Roberts.

Together, George Clooney's 21 movies have paid back $2.92 in revenue for each production budget dollar spent making his movies, while Julia Roberts' 20 have averaged a return of $3.88 in revenue for each production budget dollar spent making her movies (this includes the overlap of movies in which they star together, of course).

In an age of CGI, superheroes, fast and furious stunts, and terrifying clowns showing no regard for the dignity of life or human bodies, it's positively refreshing to see audiences support a return of $7.45 for this light-hearted, heartwarming rom-com, more than double the database-wide average of $3.62

What's most remarkable, to me? This is the highest paying movie in the 21 Clooney titles. (It's not for Roberts, she pulled in $33.07 on Pretty Woman.)

Now, this isn't the best movie Clooney has ever made (or, at least, that's my opinion). Nor is it the most important, in terms of message. It's not serious, or tense. It's not particularly relevant to anything going on in headlines today. I'm even willing to argue that it has no particular political agenda, is not trying to be "woke" or wag a finger at any person or group or ideaology (there are those who just dismiss anything Clooney does because they see him as a part of the "radical left"), and this is not a small issue because, right out of the gate, a not-insignificant portion of the potential audience would already have decided they would not bother going to a movie theatre to watch a George Clooney movie.

It's a pure, simple, romantic comedy with an ending most people would consider a happy one. It's the kind of movie Matt Damon said can't be made anymore!

With all of that going against it, this is movie is achieving remarkable business success.

Kudos.

Edit: I should hasten to disclaim, while I am a George Clooney fan, I didn't write this "about him" as opposed to how important or relevant or otherwise this movie fits into Julia Roberts' body of work (and she's done some important work, no disrespect).

I only couched it in terms of Clooney because he garners so much vitriol from the Conservatives who think he's pushing wokeness beyond whatever threshold they tolerate as reasonable (which isn't much). Clooney leading means a reduced audience, AND YET it did good business anyway, is what is noteworthy here. Again, given Roberts has put up stellar double digit returns that Clooney NEVER has, one would be less surprised that this movie did so well, so its performance is less newsworthy if I made the comment about Roberts.

Hope that makes sense.