Challengers

Challengers (film)

Luca Guadagnino is the director of the 2024 American romantic sports drama film Challengers, which is based on a script written by Justin Kuritzkes. In it, a professional tennis champion named Mike Faist, assisted by his wife Zendaya, a previous prodigy who resigned due to an injury, schemes a comeback to challenge another player named Josh O’Connor, who also happens to be O’Connor’s former best friend and Zendaya’s ex-lover.

Gener: Drama, Romance, Sport
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writers: Justin Kuritzkes
Duration: 2h 11m
Stars: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor
IMDb: 7.8/10 (18K)

Storyline

Patrick Zweig and Art Donaldson, lifelong best friends, win the US Open boys’ junior doubles championship in 2006. Following that, they run upon Tashi Duncan, a highly regarded teenage tennis player that both Patrick and Art find attractive. The three get together in a hotel room, and during their subsequent meeting, the two boys kiss Tashi and each other. However, Tashi calls up the tryst before it gets too intimate. Tashi promises to give her phone number to the winner of Patrick and Art’s junior singles match the following day. After Patrick wins the match, he uses Art’s favorite tactic—putting the ball in his racket’s neck before serving—to indicate to Art that he had sex with Tashi.

Art and Tashi continue their college tennis activities at Stanford University, and Patrick becomes a professional player who has a long-distance relationship with Tashi while being on a tour. In private, Art tells Tashi that Patrick isn’t genuinely in love with her. During his visit to Stanford, Patrick notices that Art is envious and jokingly assures him that he still loves her.

When Tashi gives Patrick unwanted tennis guidance during a sexual encounter, they argue because he sees her as a peer rather than a coach. Tashi gets a bad knee injury in the next match, which Patrick skips because of the fight. When Patrick comes back to console Tashi, she angrily orders him to go, and Art stands by her. Tashi receives assistance from Art during her recuperation, but she is unable to resume her tennis career.

A few years later, in 2009, Tashi makes contact with Art again and agrees to mentor him after that the two start dating. He discloses that since Tashi’s injury, he and Patrick have not spoken. 2011 saw the engagement of Tashi and Art, who are enjoying professional success. Art notices secretly that Tashi and Patrick have a one-night stand after they run into one other at the Atlanta Open.

Tashi and Art are a rich power couple in 2019 who are married and have a small kid named Lily. Art has improved to be a top-tier professional tennis player thanks to Tashi’s guidance. Though he has been facing difficulties since returning from an injury, he is just one US Open title away from a Career Grand Slam. In the hope of regaining his previous form and bolstering his confidence by defeating weaker opponents, Tashi enters Art as a wild card in a Challenger event in New Rochelle, New York. In addition to entering the New Rochelle event, Patrick is now an unknown player who lives out of his car and makes ends meet with earnings from the lower circuits.

Art and Patrick begin at the opposite ends of the seeding and move through the brackets to meet each other in the final. When Patrick tries to get in touch with Art the day before the match, Art tells him that his career is gone and that he is going to be remembered in tennis history.

Patrick gives Tashi a private request to guide him to one final winning season, sensing that Tashi is not pleased with Art and that Art is tired of playing, but she refuses him. Even though Art is aware that Tashi is experiencing her tennis career via him in a virtual sense, he tells her the night before the championship match that he intends to retire at the end of the season, whether or not he wins the Open. Art begs for assurance that she will still love him when she responds with silence.

Art doesn’t think she supports his quitting, despite her feigned acceptance. Tashi threatens to leave Art if he loses to Patrick in an attempt to encourage him. Following that, Tashi meets with Patrick in secret to request that he toss the match to Art. Patrick agrees unwillingly. Then, inside his car, the two have sex.

On the day of the championship match, Tashi observes Art and Patrick’s match from the crowd. Art wins the second set, and Patrick wins the first. Patrick starts to lose the match with double faults as Art gets the lead late in the decider. But instead of losing, he uses Art’s serve tic to indicate that he had slept with Tashi. Dazed, Art lets Patrick score, before they’re knotted once more.

Art and Patrick furiously exchange turns during the tie break. The rally picks up steam as both of them jump for a volley at the net. Art and Patrick clash over the net as Art starts to slam the ball, and they give each other a strong hug then Tashi applauds from the sidelines.

Challengers Movie Cast:

  • Josh O’Connor as Patrick Zweig
  • Mike Faist as Art Donaldson
  • Zendaya as Tashi Duncan
  • AJ Lister as Lily Donaldson
  • Darnell Appling as New Rochelle Final Umpire
  • Bryan Doo as Art’s Physiotherapist
  • Naheem Garcia as Tashi’s father
  • Nada Despotovich as Tashi’s mother
  • Hailey Gates as Helen
  • Jake Jensen as Finn Larsen
  • Shane T Hariis as Art’s Security Gaurd

Release:

Challengers Movie Release Dates:

  • Sydney – March 26, 2024
  • Australia – April 18, 2024
  • New Zealand – April 18, 2024
  • France – April 24, 2024
  • Philippines – April 24, 2024
  • United States – April 26, 2024
  • United Kingdom – April 26, 2024

On March 26, 2024, Challengers made its debut in Sydney, Australia. It then went on to premiere in Paris, London, and Los Angeles at the TCL Chinese Theatre, where tennis player Venus Williams was present. On April 26, 2024, Amazon MGM Studios released it in cinemas and IMAX in the United States and Canada. In the same month April 17 marks the hundredth anniversary of MGM’s foundation.

The movie was originally scheduled to be released on August 11, 2023, and then later on September 15, 2023 . The movie was also supposed to have its international premiere as the 80th Venice International Film Festival’s opening film, but Amazon MGM Studios withdrew it from the festival and gave it a later release date because of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

International distribution for the movie is handled by Warner Bros. Pictures. The movie was originally scheduled to be released directly to streaming on Amazon Prime Video in France rather than in theaters, but in January 2024, the decision was overturned, and the movie would now debut on the site 17 months after its original theatrical release. Although there were rumors that the movie would debut on April 24, 2024, two days ahead of its US premiere, a Warner Bros’ spokesperson. Discovery representative denied these rumors, saying the movie had not yet been scheduled for a French theater release.

Box Office

Challengers Movie Box Office Collection

Challengers has made $20.4 million in revenue in the US and Canada and $10.3 million in other regions as of May 1, 2024, for a total of $30.7 million worldwide.

Challengers, which was released in theaters with Boy Kills World and Unsung Hero in the US and Canada, was expected to bring in between $12 to $15 million during its first weekend of release. With $1.9 million from Thursday night previews, the movie grossed $6.2 million on its opening day. It went on to open to $15 million, taking the top spot at the box office, and became the highest grossing domestic opening weekend for a non-IP picture in both Guadagnino’s and Zendaya’s careers.

Challengers Movie Watch Online

There are several illegal websites which offer Challengers Movie online streaming. But if we talk about the legal ones Challengers Movie is not yet available on any OTT platform, the link to the movie would be available when the movie is released on any OTT platform.