The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's first feature film, Cookie Queens, earned less than £260,000 at the box office on its opening weekend, according to initial viewing figures. The documentary, produced by their company Archewell Productions, opened in 446 cinemas across America at the weekend.
The film, which tells the story of fundraising efforts by US Girl Scouts through cookie sales, did not make the Top Ten releases and was beaten by a compilation film of the world's best cat videos at the US box office over the same period.
Disappointing Debut
According to the Box Office Mojo site, each screening only earned around £600. One industry source told the Times of the disappointing premiere: "Not taking the good name of the world's No 1 cat video festival in vain, this is by any measure a pretty pitiful return."
The independent distributor responsible for Cookie Queens, Roadside Attractions, was more positive about the opening weekend, with a spokesperson telling entertainment website Deadline that it had performed well with groups of current and former girl scouts. "We're encouraged by the response and believe the film has a long life ahead as it continues to reach its many audiences," they said.
Eclipsed by CatVideoFest
The release of Cookie Queens was eclipsed by CatVideoFest 2026, a compilation of cat videos sourced from submissions, animations, music videos and the internet, which earned around £420,000. While CatVideoFest aired in 191 fewer theatres than Cookie Queens, it landed in 10th place for the weekend's releases, while Cookie Queens came in 12th place.
Harry and Meghan, who produced the documentary under their Archewell Productions company, attended the world premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City in January and have continued promoting the film at various appearances since.
Mixed Reviews
The documentary has received mixed reviews. Variety branded the movie "too much of a reality-show ramble", as they said: "It's about the business of girl scouts making themselves into entrepreneurs. But it's not about much else."
Owen Gleiberman, the magazine's chief film critic, said the film lacked emotion, as he wrote: "For a moment, I thought the movie was going to turn into … Norma Rae. But all of that gets dropped rather quickly. Cookie Queens is a movie about precocious American girls learning to work the system, not fight it."
At the Salt Lake City premiere, Meghan delivered a speech in support of the project, directed by Alysa Nahmias, which she called a "powerful and meaningful depiction of something that is an American tradition". She said: "It is now put through this lens from the incredible creative vision of Alysa to show something modernised about the girlhood experience and all the layers of complexity that come with that."
Meghan continued: "So yes, it's cute, and yes, these young ladies are fantastic and adorable, but they are also layered beautiful girls who are about to become very strong leaders and young women. So thank you for supporting that."
Meghan previously told People magazine why the project resonated with her, as she said: "When we first saw the teaser several years ago, it was just a few minutes in length and still being put together, but it was very clear that Alysa's vision as a director was capturing something special."
"The music, the cinematography, the honesty. It made both of us laugh out loud and also feel such emotion as parents. We knew we wanted to help uplift this project in any way we could."
