Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are facing renewed scrutiny over their ability to translate their global name recognition into paying audiences, after their latest documentary project underperformed significantly at the box office, according to public relations experts who have weighed in on the film’s disappointing run.

“Cookie Queens,” a documentary on which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex serve as executive producers, follows four Girl Scouts competing to become the season’s top cookie seller. The film debuted in theaters two weeks ago but has struggled commercially, with reports indicating it was outperformed at the box office by a compilation of viral cat videos released around the same time.

PR expert Mayah Riaz cautioned against interpreting the film’s weak box office performance as a direct referendum on Harry and Meghan’s broader public standing, telling The News International that the situation is more nuanced than it might initially appear. “I would be careful about viewing the box office result as a straightforward verdict on Harry and Meghan themselves,” Riaz said. She noted that the documentary’s subject matter inherently limited its commercial ceiling. “Cookie Queens is a niche documentary about Girl Scouts and their cookie-selling competition, so it was never going to have the natural commercial pull of a major mainstream film,” Riaz said, adding that the film’s “relatively limited theatrical release” made direct comparisons to conventional blockbuster releases difficult to draw.

Despite that context, Riaz identified what she described as a more significant underlying concern for the couple’s broader media strategy. “There is a bigger PR issue here,” she said, explaining that much of Harry and Meghan’s public profile has been built around generating conversation rather than necessarily driving audience engagement with any single project. “Harry and Meghan have built a huge amount of their profile around being talked about,” Riaz said, but she drew a clear distinction between that visibility and genuine commercial demand. “There is an important difference between generating headlines and generating audiences,” she said.

Riaz went on to argue that the couple’s ability to dominate news coverage does not automatically translate into consumer engagement with their creative output. “Their names can still dominate the news cycle,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean people will spend money or time consuming every project they attach themselves to.” She offered a pointed observation about the paradox facing the Sussexes’ current media strategy, suggesting that their recent efforts to present more conventional, less controversial content may be working against their ability to generate genuine public interest. “In fact, I think the irony is that the less controversial the project becomes, the harder it can be for them to generate genuine curiosity,” Riaz said.

Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield offered a similar assessment of the documentary’s underwhelming reception, telling Fox News Digital that the Sussexes can no longer rely on their names alone to guarantee a project’s commercial success. “Harry and Meghan remain extraordinarily effective at generating headlines, but headlines and paying customers are two very different things,” Schofield said. She suggested that the earlier period in which the couple’s involvement alone was sufficient to drive significant public curiosity toward a project has passed. Schofield noted that the days are gone “when simply attaching their names to something guaranteed enormous curiosity.”

The commentary surrounding “Cookie Queens” adds to an ongoing broader conversation about the commercial performance and public reception of Harry and Meghan’s various media ventures since the couple stepped back from their roles as senior working royals in 2020 and relocated to the United States. The Sussexes have built an extensive media and business portfolio in the years since their departure, including documentary series, podcasts and books, some produced through content agreements with major streaming platforms, alongside various lifestyle and commercial ventures under Meghan’s Sussex-branded lines of products.

Reaction to the couple’s various projects has historically been mixed, with some earlier releases, including their widely watched Netflix documentary series, drawing significant viewership numbers upon release even as critical reception often remained divided. “Cookie Queens,” by contrast, appears to represent one of the more modest commercial outings in the couple’s expanding media portfolio, both in terms of its limited theatrical distribution and its niche subject matter centered on a youth-oriented fundraising competition rather than material more directly tied to the couple’s own personal narrative or royal experiences.

The broader questions raised by PR experts regarding the durability of the couple’s public draw arrive amid continued speculation about the state of Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the wider royal family, as well as ongoing coverage of their evolving media and business ventures in the years since their departure from official royal duties. Neither Prince Harry nor Meghan Markle has publicly responded to the specific commentary regarding “Cookie Queens” or the broader questions raised about their ability to convert headline attention into paying audiences for their creative projects.

As the couple continues developing additional media and commercial ventures, the reception to “Cookie Queens” is likely to serve as one data point among several that industry observers and entertainment commentators will continue watching closely, particularly as questions persist about whether the substantial public attention the Sussexes continue to generate translates reliably into the kind of sustained commercial engagement typically associated with successful entertainment properties. Representatives for Harry and Meghan have not issued a public statement addressing the box office performance of “Cookie Queens” or the broader commentary from PR experts regarding the couple’s audience-building strategy.