Why Kristen Wiig Was Certain This Raunchy Box Office Hit Was A Total Dud

For my money, "Bridesmaids" is one of the best American comedies ever made, and we have co-writers Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo to thank for it, along with their fearless director Paul Feig. Apparently, though, Wiig — the beloved "Saturday Night Live" staple who wrote and starred in the movie — thought it was a huge failure at first, because it didn't have an impressive opening weekend.

"Bridesmaids" finished second at the box office in its initial opening weekend — behind the first "Thor" movie — and by the end of the weekend, it boasted a gross of roughly $26 million against a $32.5 million budget. Still, word of mouth kept the film going, and when all was said and done, "Bridesmaids" raked in a truly impressive haul of $288 million across the world and even became the highest-grossing film produced by comedy powerhouse Judd Apatow, surpassing his 2007 film "Knocked Up."Beyond all of those accolades, the movie even earned Oscar nominations, including a screenplay nod for Wiig and Mumolo and a supporting actress nomination for Melissa McCarthy, who became one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the aftermath of "Bridesmaids."

So why in the world did Wiig think it bombed? Chatting with her former "SNL" colleague and friend Amy Poehler on Poehler's podcast "Good Hang," Wiig said that the studio, Universal, wasn't exactly positive about the whole thing. "After opening weekend, they were like, 'Well, we tried,'" Wiig said, deadpan.

Again, what?! As Wiig explained, the studio felt like the movie's opening weekend was the make-or-break moment. Luckily, as she pointed out, the movie gained a ton of traction thanks to word of mouth. "And then I think just, more and more people kept seeing it, and then things kind of happened later," she concluded. Because this is Wiig we're talking about, she threw in a slightly risqué joke: "It was a grower."

Director Paul Feig, who went on to work with Melissa McCarthy on hit comedies like "The Heat," "Spy," and the all-female "Ghostbusters" reboot after making "Bridesmaids," was also worried about the exact same outcome as Wiig was when he made "Bridesmaids." (Feig spoke about this during a SXSW panel in March 2025, per Variety.) Apparently, a lot of people Feig knew — especially female writers — were "pitching female-led comedies" to studios and were told, "We have to wait and see how 'Bridesmaids' does." The pressure was, clearly, immense. "I was like, 'F***! Don't put that on me. Am I gonna ruin movies for women?'" Feig said before speaking up about a clear double standard. "I don't think with 'The Hangover' they said, 'I'm gonna wait to see all these dudes on screen before we do this again,'" he joked. "But thank god it did well."

Still, as Feig pointed out — which corroborates Wiig's recollection — the studio was downright pessimistic about the story of a woman, Annie Walker (Wiig), getting increasingly frantic and jealous while she's a bridesmaid for her best friend Lillian Donovan (Maya Rudolph). "Right till the day we came out, we were predicted to not do well," Feig remembered. "We were told, 'You have to make $20 million on opening weekend, or you will be considered a failure.'"

To make matters worse, according to Feig, a last-minute late-night screening of the film didn't perform. "And we did a midnight screening the night before that didn't go well," the director said. "They were like, 'It's gonna be $13 million. Sorry, it's a bomb.' All day, I was walking around, like, 'I guess I destroyed comedy for women.'" Far from it, Feig! Don't you worry!

"Bridesmaids" has become a major Hollywood success story and a beloved comedy classic since it was released in 2011. Thanks to Kristen Wiig's grounded yet absolutely bonkers performance as Annie — her entire sequence on the airplane is one of the movie's biggest highlights and most quotable scenes — and incredible supporting turns from comedic secret agent Rose Byrne (as Lillian's wealthy new friend and Annie's defacto nemesis Helen Harris III) and Melissa McCarthy (as the groom's erratic but incredibly wise sister Megan Price) don't hurt either. So will we ever get a sequel now that the studio was proved soundly wrong over the box office haul for "Bridesmaids?"

No, according to Wiig — and I think that's for the best. In March 2024, Wiig spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the unlikely success of "Bridesmaids," echoing some of her sentiments about how people didn't believe in the film — "People get scared. What's wrong with having a big female cast? Why is that scary?" — and also said that a sequel isn't in the cards. "It's never been a conversation," Wiig confirmed. "That story had an end, and it's so beloved to me for 10 million reasons, and I think it's OK to just have it exist in the world as it is."

If you're really jonesing for more "Bridesmaids," though, may I make a humble suggestion? In 2020, Wiig and Annie Mumolo released their second feature film that they co-wrote, "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar," and while it's a lot weirder than "Bridesmaids," it's also incredible. Ever wanted to see Wiig play two characters and Jamie Dornan obsess about being in an "official couple?" Go watch "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar" on VOD, and "Bridesmaids" is streaming on Netflix.