Horror Report

Category: Box office

  • Why the sad face when we’re going to get a clay face

    Why the sad face when we’re going to get a clay face

    The excitement is real right now. A brand new trailer dropped today for Clayface, and it’s got people talking in a big way.

    This isn’t your typical DC rollout either. The film is directed by James Watkins and stars Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, a disfigured actor who undergoes a transformation that turns him into something far more terrifying than anyone expected. The budget is reportedly around $40 million, which is actually pretty modest by superhero standards… but in a weird way, that almost adds to the intrigue. This feels less like a blockbuster and more like a calculated risk. A horror-driven swing inside the DC universe.
    And you can feel that immediately in the trailer.


    What we’re seeing is full-on body horror. Clayface appears with what looks like bandages wrapping around his face like a mummy, cutting between strange flashbacks and moments that feel completely ungrounded. Then there’s that final shot… his face looks human for a split second before he swipes it downward like a glitchy computer program and it just dissolves into nothing. It’s unsettling in a way that DC hasn’t really leaned into before. This isn’t just dark… it’s uncomfortable.


    What makes this even more interesting is that it doesn’t appear to be directly tied to Batman. From everything out there right now, Batman isn’t expected to actually show up. That said, this is still Gotham, and you can almost guarantee the presence will be felt through references, atmosphere, and the world itself. Honestly, that might be the smarter move. Let Clayface stand on his own and let the horror breathe.


    And speaking of that… the timing couldn’t be better. An October release puts this right in the heart of Halloween season, and if DC plays this right with a steady rollout of trailers throughout the year, the hype could build in a very real way. This has the chance to pull in not just comic fans, but horror fans too… and that’s a lane DC hasn’t fully owned yet.


    I’ll be honest, though… part of my excitement comes from something a little more personal. I’ve always liked Clayface. Going back to playing as him in Lego Batman: The Videogame on the Wii and Wii U, he was this big, goofy, fun character. Not the main villain, not the most popular… but memorable. And now seeing that same character turned into something this disturbing and serious… it’s kind of wild in the best way. It taps into that nostalgia but flips it on its head.


    The movie looks great. It looks scary. And yeah… that $40 million budget might be a little scary too when you start thinking about box office expectations. It’s way too early to know how this thing is going to perform, but if the tone lands and the marketing keeps building like this, don’t be surprised if this ends up being one of the more talked-about DC releases in a long time.


    This might be the one that quietly changes everything.

  • Faces of a box office dud

    Faces of a box office dud

    Faces of Death cost about $7 million dollars to make and made under $2 million dollars in his opening weekend it’s about 1600 theaters. Probably safe to consider the Flop but a modest flop, but with some very bad reviews..

    But thanks to the Super Mario Brothers with some more huge numbers the American box office is rocking and rolling early that year..

    It was never expected to soar high but horror fans not liking it much sure didn’t help.

    It solidifies for good that when people hear about Faces of Death they’ll think about the 1970s and 80s macabre version as opposed to this new incarnation train wreck..

  • Jamie Lee Curtis they wrote

    Jamie Lee Curtis they wrote

    Well this announcement may not be too exciting to every generation people over a certain age will highly anticipate Jamie Lee Curtis starring in a Murder She Wrote movie coming out in December of 2027

    Jamie Lee Curtis’ “Murder, She Wrote” adaptation has tapped “Pitch Perfect” and upcoming “Legally Blonde” prequel director Jason Moore is going to direct ..

    Disappears to be a very Niche movie idea. Jamie Lee Curtis obviously has the horror movie cred and many people who are not alive anymore fondly would recall Angela Lansbury giving us a weekly mystery murder show. We’ll see how it works..

  • Lowkey horror undertone has a quiet box office release

    Lowkey horror undertone has a quiet box office release

    A24’s indie horror movie undertone hit $4.3M on opening day and it’s still gunning for $10M in third place by the conclusion to the weekend box office release..

    The film has had some high praise from several in the horror community.. the movie has a lot more to do with the scariness of sound rather than visual fright..

    Most reviewers however were not kind, with really low ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences liked it a lot more than the official paid mouthpieces of anti-horror rhetoric in publications..

    We didn’t see undertone yet but are excited too and hope to in a theater with a great sound system.. While it is being criticized in various circles, as always you just need to give movies like this a try.. We spoke before about how PONTYPOOL was a favorite of ours and this one may rank eventually in the same category..

    As far as the box office? Onward to streaming quickly perhaps..

  • Married to a box office bust! There goes the Bride

    Married to a box office bust! There goes the Bride

    Sometimes a movie just sort of appears out of nowhere and you realize Hollywood expected it to be a big deal, but the audience never really got the memo.


    That seems to be what happened with The Bride!, the new Frankenstein-inspired film directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. On paper, the movie had some things going for it. The Gyllenhaal name carries weight in Hollywood, the source material comes from one of the most famous monster stories ever created, and studios have been trying for years to find a way to revive the old Universal-style monster movies for modern audiences. But when the film actually arrived in theaters this weekend, the numbers told a very different story.


    The film opened to roughly $7.3 million domestically, with another $6.3 million internationally, bringing its global opening weekend to around $13.6 million worldwide. That would be fine for a small horror movie, but The Bride! reportedly cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 to $90 million to produce, which suddenly makes that opening weekend look extremely rough.


    What makes the situation even more interesting is that many people, including horror fans, seemed genuinely confused about what the movie actually was. The trailers presented it as a strange mix of gothic horror, romance, and what almost looked like an art-house style period piece. That might work for a smaller experimental film, but it is a harder sell when you are spending blockbuster-level money.


    The marketing also did not seem to find its audience. Personally, I only saw a few ads for it, and even then it was not clear what niche the film was trying to target. Was it meant to be a serious monster movie, a dark romantic drama, or a stylized reinterpretation of the classic Bride of Frankenstein story? The messaging never quite landed.


    To make matters worse, the movie opened against more broadly appealing releases, including a major animated film that dominated the weekend box office. That kind of competition is always risky, but it becomes even more dangerous when the film you are releasing already has a somewhat unclear identity.


    In the end, The Bride! might become one of those films that finds a second life later on streaming, where audiences sometimes embrace unusual projects that struggled in theaters. But at least for now, the opening weekend suggests this was a big-budget gamble on a very niche idea, and it is one that did not quite connect with audiences the way the studio probably hoped.

  • SCREAM 7 wins one for the Ghostface

    SCREAM 7 wins one for the Ghostface

    So much for the Rotten Tomatoes.. the bad reviews.. the critics be damned. SCREAM 7 has made enough money that people are now clamoring for a SCREAM 8!

    The film is expected to scare up around $60 million by the end of the weekend, far surpassing Scream VI’s franchise best opening weekend of $44 million.

    Scream 7 also saw the best opening day/previews for the franchise at $28.8M.

    Pre-sale tickets happening before review embargo was lifted most likely helped.

    Pre-sales were heavy with 53% of the audience buying their tickets within the last week or a week ago..

  • Scream 7 weekend

    Scream 7 weekend

    The long-anticipated next installment in the legendary franchise has arrived, and as expected, the reactions are all over the place.


    Critics? Not impressed. Early reviews have been rough — some calling it excessive, others saying it leans too heavily into shock value.
    Fans? A very different story.


    Rotten Tomatoes is hovering around 77% from audience scores, which tells you everything you need to know about the divide. Horror has always been that genre where critics and fans rarely sit at the same lunch table. And honestly… when have they ever fully agreed on Scream?


    Financially, though? This thing came out swinging.
    The film already pulled in $7.8 million, which is reportedly a franchise record for that particular preview window. It’s now poised to land somewhere between $40–50 million by the end of the weekend.


    That’s not nostalgia money.
    That’s “we showed up” money.
    Now here’s the part that matters.
    A big opening doesn’t automatically mean the movie is good. We’ve all seen horror films open hot and disappear faster than a teenager in the third act.


    But it also doesn’t mean it’s bad.
    People have been clamoring for more brutality. More gore. More risk. For years, fans said the franchise was getting too safe, too self-aware, too polished. Well… from what’s being said, they got their wish.


    The question now isn’t whether it delivers blood.
    It’s whether it delivers staying power.
    Will people still be talking about it in three weeks?
    Will it spark debate?
    Will it create a new iconic scene?
    Or will it simply be remembered as “the gory one”?


    Opening weekends are adrenaline.
    Longevity is legacy.
    And that’s something you can’t measure in a Friday night number.


    For now, it’s a Scream 7 weekend.
    And whether you’re going for the kills, the chaos, or just to see if Ghostface still has that magic… the only real verdict comes after the crowd leaves the theater and the conversation begins.
    Let’s see if this one sticks.

  • From Scream to snooze: 7th movie lampooned by film critics and audiences

    From Scream to snooze: 7th movie lampooned by film critics and audiences

    The reviews are now coming in after the Embargo is lifted and they’re bad. Some of the lowest ratings of the entire Scream series on Rotten Tomatoes currently exist with critics lampooning the film such as The Daily Beast calling it shockingly terrible.

    The

    Hollywood Reporter‘s review was one of the more negative takes on the new film, writing, “The overfamiliarity would be more palatable if the dialogue were as fresh and funny as it was in the early installments, or if the kills were more creatively staged. But there’s a rote quality to the proceedings that makes Scream 7 feel like a slog despite its high body count and copious gore.”

    The film is probably largely review-proof, with the movie expected to open around $60 million globally for the second-best start in the franchise..

    But just because it may have a successful box office doesn’t mean it would be a good movie.

  • Pro-Palestinian groups are urging a boycott of SCREAM 7

    Pro-Palestinian groups are urging a boycott of SCREAM 7

    This reporting is from the Hollywood Reporter:

    Dozens of pro-Palestine protesters marched outside the Los Angeles premiere for Scream 7 on Wednesday night.

    Some demonstrators could be seen waving Palestinian flags, while others were holding signs that read “Cancel Paramount+” and “Stand For Free Speech Boycott Scream 7.” The group could also be heard chanting “Boycott Scream 7” and “Free, free, free Palestine,” while some played drums and trumpets.

    The premiere took place at the Paramount Studios lot; however, the protests could only be faintly heard from the red carpet, where the film’s stars, like Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox, were posing for photos.

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    About 25 demonstrators were seen positioned around the lot with flags, drums and bullhorns. They were heard chanting phrases like “Paramount, Paramount, what do you say?” and “Palestine will live forever!”

    The protest was led by Entertainment Labor for Palestine, CODEPINK LA, Musicians for Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace-Los Angeles. The activists on the scene were also pro-Melissa Barrera, the actress who has been vocal in her support for Palestine.


    In November 2023, Spyglass Media Group slashed Barrera from reprising her role in the seventh installment of the film after she expressed support for Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war. The production company behind the film said in a statement that they had “zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form” and dropped her.

  • The Passion of Mel Gibson’s Resurrection

    The Passion of Mel Gibson’s Resurrection

    Mel Gibson is consulting with excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò — who has called the late Pope Francis “a servant of Satan” — for the “The Resurrection of the Christ,” his follow up to 2004’s “The Passion of the Christ” that is currently still shooting in Italy.

    Viganò, who is the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States, was excommunicated in 2024 for refusing to recognize Pope Francis’ authority and rejecting the Second Vatican Council that modernized the Roman Catholic Church. He has repeatedly referred to Francis as a liberal “servant of Satan” and a “false prophet” in public statements. Viganò is also known to be a big fan of U.S. President Donald Trump, a critic of gay rights and a supporter of anti-vaccine positions

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