Don’t look now but Mason Thames might be the king of 2025 at the movies. This weekend, His latest film, Regretting You, managed to sneak the #1 slot at the box office over The Black Phone 2. Colleen Hoover’s beloved novel serves as the inspiration for the new movie. It notched about $8 million this weekend. But, Mason Thames was in a strange bit of competition with himself on this one. He’s in the Blumhouse horror picture as well! He stars alongside Ethan Hawke’s grabber in that world. But, that’s Thames’ third movie to debut at #1 this year.
As our friends over at Film Updates posted, that’s the first time an actor has scored 3 number ones since Jim Carrey in 1994. Yeah, How to Train Your Dragon was this year too! (Mason, if they ask you to reboot Ace Ventura, go ahead and run!) That’s a fun accomplishment for an 18 year-old actor looking to keep establishing himself in Hollywood. There’s a bit of a give and take to this box office tally for Halloween weekend. Both Regretting You and Black Phone 2 are hovering around $8 million. But, no matter what, everything is coming up Thames.
Now, it will be interesting to see where Mason Thames will pop-up next. At the moment, it feels like the kid is in line for the same kind of career arc as current Hollywood favorites. (Buddy, if you get a decent script to play a vampire in the next 4 months, give it a thought!) The future will likely take care of itself. But, we had to at least report on this strange little story.
Mason Thames notches 3 #1 movies in 2025
All of this news is very exciting if you’re in the “Mason Themes Fan Club” already. It’s legitimately nice to see a young actor get this kind of success so soon. But, for this observer, the success of these three very different films leads to a more important conclusion. Basically, this isn’t a millennial’s game anymore. As you may be aware advertisers, studios, and other entities are trying to crack the code of what Gen Z, and Gen Alpha now, are interested in. It’s an interesting question as the Internet splinters into smaller and smaller fan communities.
The monoculture as we knew it in the mid-2000s and early 10s is a quickly fading memory at this point. Social media is basically king, and one could argue has eclipsed traditional forms of entertainment like television and movies. All of this makes the job of marketing projects for the small screen and its IMAX-sized cousin even more fraught. With the seeming desperation in the air from all corners, look to studios and other decision makers to try to make some (un)educated guesses. Expect to see Mason Thames in a lot of stuff over the next two years.
Don’t get it twisted. This young man is very talented, and his co-stars love him. I’ve been around long enough to see the original How to Train Your Dragon movies, and his live action remake was stirring. Let’s not underplay his role as a burgeoning teen heartthrob for some of our younger friends as well. All of that is a potent mix that should serve Mr. Thames well into his approaching adulthood. But we can file the success of regretting you away as more evidence that millennials aren’t at the controls anymore. We’re all living in Gen Z’s world and these small generational indicators aren’t stopping anytime soon.
(featured image: Paramount)
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