Harry and Meghan have just been dealt ultimate Hollywood blow - there's no coming back now
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex took their Girl Scout cookie documentary into theatres this weekend.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s latest Hollywood blow is so embarrassing I can barely bring myself to type the words. Over the weekend, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex took their Girl Scout cookie documentary, Cookie Queens, into cinemas in the US… but it was beaten at the box office by a 70-minute-long compilation of cat videos.
Yes, you read that right. Cookie Queens, which follows four American Girl Scouts as they attempt to sell the most biscuits to raise money for the organisation, opened on August 7 in 446 cinemas worldwide, to $327,797 at the box office. It did not make the top 10 releases of the weekend.
What did, you might ask? CatVideoFest 2026, by Will Braden, which came in 10th. Released in far fewer theatres than Cookie Queens – 255 in total – it raised $568,414.
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It makes me physically cringe to think that more people wanted to watch short clips of cats doing stupid things for 70 minutes rather than anything produced by Harry and Meghan. The thought of it makes me physically recoil.
Cookie Queens was also pipped to the post by the pro-shot of Broadway musical Hadestown; Eli Roth’s much-derided horror film Ice Cream Man, which he admitted uses AI in some of its sequences; and the animated film Minions and Monsters.
The top-grossing film of the weekend was, unsurprisingly, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which grossed a whopping $144million.
Cookie Queens’ production company Roadside Attractions insisted that the film performed well at specialty venues, as well as multiplex cinemas where Girl Scouts helped boost audience figures.
They told Deadline: “We’re encouraged by the response and believe the film has a long life ahead as it continues to reach its many audiences.”
I’m doubtful. While I’m well aware that documentaries typically don’t fare as well as Hollywood blockbusters, you’d think having the combined might of Harry and Meghan behind it would have given it a bit of a boost. Instead, their influence seems to have done the opposite.
And that’s not to say documentaries can’t do well. Think back to 2005’s March of the Penguins, which grossed $133million, or 1984 IMAX special Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets, which made $239million. It seems Cookie Queens was doomed by its own reliance on associating with the Sussexes.
From seeing Meghan gush over her own Girl Scout career to her use of typical With Love, Meghan buzzwords (“absolutely irresistible” springs to mind), I fear Cookie Queens would have benefitted from a bit of distance from the Duchess of Disaster.
