Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan face fresh industry scrutiny following the August 7 premiere of their documentary Cookie Queens, which underperformed at the box office. Royalty expert Kinsey Schofield suggests the couple step back from the professional spotlight, following the cancellation of Meghan’s Netflix series With Love, Meghan after two seasons.
The Bottom Line
- The Box Office Reality: The documentary Cookie Queens was outperformed in its opening week by CatVideoFest 2026, a compilation feature of viral cat videos.
- Streaming Cutbacks: Netflix opted not to renew Duchess Meghan’s cooking show With Love, Meghan past its second season.
- Strategic Retreat: Industry observers like Kinsey Schofield argue the couple needs to halt new rollouts and focus on high-caliber partnerships.
When Viral Felines Outpace Royal Productions
Hollywood does not care about titles when the box office tallies roll in. More than six years after Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan stepped back from their royal duties in 2020, their post-palace commercial ventures continue to face an unforgiving market. Here is the kicker: their latest cinematic effort, the documentary Cookie Queens, bowed on August 7 to remarkably soft ticket sales.
In fact, trade tracking highlighted by the New York Post revealed that the documentary brought in lower box office numbers during its opening week than CatVideoFest 2026. When a curated reel of internet cat videos pulls ahead of a high-profile Sussex banner project, studio accountants take notice. But the box office tumble is only part of a broader pattern shaping the couple’s multi-platform media strategy.
The Netflix Calculus and Streaming Fatigue
The cinematic setback follows friction on the streaming front. The couple’s high-profile content partnership with Netflix has yielded mixed returns since its inception. Most notably, Duchess Meghan’s lifestyle and cooking series, With Love, Meghan, was quietly shelved by the streaming giant after just two seasons, with executives opting against a third.
| Project Title | Medium | Platform/Distributor | Current Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| With Love, Meghan | Television Series | Netflix | Cancelled after 2 seasons |
| Cookie Queens | Feature Documentary | Theatrical Release | Underperformed in opening week (August) |
Rebuilding the Brand Through Strategic Absence
Weighing in on the couple’s trajectory, royalty expert Kinsey Schofield argued in an interview with Page Six that the smartest play for the Duke and Duchess is a prolonged professional hiatus.
“I would say to them that they should disappear from the professional world for a good long while,” Schofield noted. “They should reduce the number of announcements and instead find a truly compelling project, with experienced people involved so that what they deliver turns out well.”
Schofield maintains that corporate redemption and commercial viability remain entirely possible for the pair, but only if they abandon heavily polished self-branding in favor of hard-nosed execution. The path forward, according to industry observers, relies less on expanding into new, untested verticals and more on letting substantive, well-vetted work speak for itself.
What Lies Ahead for the Sussex Imprint
Beyond their high-profile film and television plays with Netflix, the couple has explored podcasting ventures and curated consumer goods. Yet, as the numbers for Cookie Queens demonstrate, celebrity association alone no longer guarantees distribution dominance or consumer conversion.
Whether the Duke and Duchess heed the advice to step back and re-tool behind the scenes will determine if their next chapter finally delivers the commercial hit Hollywood demands.
