Horror Report

Tag: box office

  • No more true believers in the Exorcist franchise

    No more true believers in the Exorcist franchise

    Well…. It flopped.

    Various sources this morning are lamenting a weak weekend release for THE EXORCIST. Despite some appealing early buzz, the movie seemingly lost its way. It will reportedly earn $27 mil this weekend in domestic runs. Keep in mind the studio purchased the rights for .. drumroll.. $400 million

    Buyers remorse as the devil is in the details.

    Reporting from DEADLINE with analysis of what went wrong:

    Universal originally had the horror theatrical release date of Friday the 13th this month before AMC’s Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour landed on that date. However, going earlier really wasn’t the problem here for Exorcist: Believer. It was always in the execution.

    Social media analytics firm RelishMix noticed online chatter that had many piling on the rhetorical issue of remakes, as they questioned, “Why re-paint the Mona Lisa of Horror?”

    While horror has been bankable during the pandemic, and this opening for Exorcist: Believer (despite coming in under tracking’s $30M projection) in the wheelhouse of other genre openings, Evil Dead ($24.5M), Smile ($22.6M), The Black Phone ($23.6M) and Nun II‘s $32.6M, many still say that this actors’ strike, and performers’ unable to promote their wares is truly weighing down on ticket sales. A studio just can’t scream these movies from the hilltops in their promotions on social media, at premieres and festivals. Consider the fact that the phenomenal results for 2018’s Halloween began when Blumhouse blasted off the movie at TIFF’s Midnight Madness.

  • Flash: Smiling about Smile 2

    Flash: Smiling about Smile 2

    Smile grossed around $217 million worldwide on a $17 million budget.

    Planning went underwater quickly for a sequel while the iron was still hot. Deadline reported the sequel will be hitting theaters as soon as next year in 2024.

    “Paramount has set Oct. 18, 2024 for the next Smile movie.”

    Deadline also adds that original Smile director “Parker Finn is coming back to helm Smile 2.”

    While smile may make studio executives grinning from ear to ear at potential profits in 2024, the movie itself was one of the better. Additionally, the roll out of the film that included people creepily posing in baseball games and just smiling for nine innings really helped get the word out in an impressive way.

    Can they muster up a entrance into the box office fray as successful as their first go around?

    If not part 3 will be FROWN.

  • BARBENHEIMER SAVED THE SUMMER

    BARBENHEIMER SAVED THE SUMMER

    BARBIE AND OPPENHEIMER SAVED THE BOX OFFICE THIS SUMMER!

    Without them, movies this season may have faced calamity..

    “As a seemingly out of reach goal just a couple of months ago, the $4 billion domestic summer season box office has become a reality over Labor Day weekend, reflecting not only a strong lineup of films, but the desire by audiences to embrace the time-honored tradition of going to the movies in the hottest moviegoing season of the year,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

    “Barbie” is the highest grossing film of the summer (and the year) with $612 million in North America and $1.36 billion globally to date. “Oppenheimer” also wildly outperformed expectations with $311 at the domestic box office and $850 million worldwide.

    Other top stateside earners this summer include Sony’s animated “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ($381 million), Disney and Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($358 million), “The Little Mermaid” remake ($298 million) and the Jim Caviezel-led action thriller “Sound of Freedom” ($181 million). Those blockbusters helped to make up for underperforming tentpoles like DC’s superhero adaptation “The Flash” and Disney’s remake of “Haunted Mansion.”

  • Something finally defeats Barbie

    Something finally defeats Barbie

    From the Hollywood Reporter:

    Sony’s late-summer event pic Gran Turismodeclared victory at the weekend box office race with a $17.3 million domestic opening, a somewhat muted start for a movie based on a popular video game. The hope now is that an A CinemaScore from audiences will provide a turbo boost in the days to come.

    Directed by Neill Blomkamp, the racing pic had been set to launch nationwide Aug. 11 but switched gears because of the actors strike and the resulting prohibition on the cast — led by Orlando Bloom and David Harbour — doing any press. The studio instead hosted two weekends of sneaks and a handful of fan screenings to build buzz before opening the movie everywhere Aug. 25.

  • Box office rampage: Barbie beats Batman!

    Box office rampage: Barbie beats Batman!

    On Tuesday, the box office sensation notched another major milestone when passing up Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight to become the biggest Warner Bros. movie ever in North America, not adjusted for inflation.

    Barbie’s Tuesday box was $6.1 million, for a domestic total of $537.4 million. In 2008, The Dark Knight topped out at $536 million.

    Inspired by Mattel’s famous doll, Barbie jumped the $1.2 billion mark at the worldwide box office on Tuesday, where it is the second-biggest Warners’ release in history behind the final Harry Potter film, which grossed $1.34 billion globally, not adjusted for inflation. ..

    Developing..

  • Barbie stays strong! Demeter sinks

    Barbie stays strong! Demeter sinks

    Epically bad numbers for the horror flick LAST VOYAGE OF DEMETER but Barbenheimer continues it’s odd summer rampage on the box office.

    While did the movie do so bad? Some have opinions.. we think people are bored with vampires, the marketing was bad, and this is not the magic week of summer for horror. Closer to September always works better..

    But from Deadline, they say this:

    Unfortunately, the tanking of Amblin/Universal’s $45M-costing The Last Voyage of the Demeter stands out like a wart, since we haven’t had many misfires this summer. Granted, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One‘s profitability might be in question next to their exorbitant Covid costs. But these pics have put up tentpole grosses in the nine digits, and have been mass draws (just not as massive as they were hoped to be). Note the filmmakers aimed to keep this period horror pic as cheap as they could: Exteriors were shot in Malta, while interior were shot in Germany, both those countries respectively having tax credits of 50% and 30%.
    — Read on deadline.com/2023/08/box-office-barbie-last-voyage-of-the-demeter-1235460243/

  • Mario the super star!! Blows Disney away!

    Mario the super star!! Blows Disney away!

    Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros is coming in with a massive projected five-day global opening of $368M!

    …it now has the rights to the biggest-ever worldwide debut for an animated title.

    Currently, the international box office portion of that is estimated at $173M from 70 markets.

    This is the biggest animated opening of all time globally, ahead of Frozen 2 and clearly best for this year so far as well as Illumination’s top debut ever passing Minions and Despicable Me 3 in like-for-like opening markets and Despicable Me 2, the previous biggest reported global weekend at $208M..

    An animated movie also blowing away real life actors in Marvel movies..

    Developing..

    I

  • Box office working blue: Avatar not as strong as expected while the WHALE fails..

    Box office working blue: Avatar not as strong as expected while the WHALE fails..

    This news developing tonight.. “Avatar 2” has come up short. Disney was hoping for a blow out with upwards of $175 million this weekend. The total is more like $130 million, which is certainly a big number but not the one to crow about.

    It is starting to look like a Blue Christmas for a movie that everyone waited for for 13 years and cost at least $300 million and maybe as much as a billion with a B..

    And consider it: With previews you will be at a theater for 4 hours or so. Is that worth it for a movie on the weekend before Christmas while Shopping and Dropping still has to take place?

    Meanwhile Roger Freidman holds nothing back in his description of the WHALE’s failure:

    Why am I not surprised by the negative reaction to “The Whale”? When I saw the film at the Hamptons Film Festival, I thought it was emotionally manipulative and over hyped. Since then, a lot of audiences didn’t like its take on the morbidly obese.

    This second weekend of release saw a roughly 50% drop from the debut week. This weighty movie is not going to get off the ground. Brendan Fraser is fine, but his 600 pound fat suit is turning people off. The incredible nostalgia for Fraser, who was never a great actor, is not going to carry this thing over any threshold. Fraser is lucky: this is a light year for Best Actor nominees. He will get the semi-final nod because of it, but he won’t win.

    Fraser’s 90s nostalgia seems similar, by the way, to the sentimental clamor for Ke Huy Quan in “Everything Everywhere.” It’s nice to see the “Indiana Jones” kid back, but this is a martial arts sci fi movie that becomes repetitive very quickly. Again, a nom for Best Supporting Actor, but Judd Hirsch and Brendan Gleeson are the real candidates for the top honor.

    Meanwhile back to AVATAR… they have a long way to go to a billion.

    Visually stunning, they call it..
    ..unwatchable say others..
    Just not enough time say the rest!

    x x x

    A worthwhile trip back into time.. remember in 2010 when we had to deal with the AVATAR depression? Maybe we will again?

  • WAKANDA FOREVER rocks the box office: Biggest November opening

    WAKANDA FOREVER rocks the box office: Biggest November opening

    BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER is a huge hit!

    And deservedly so.. The film was spectacular–though perhaps a little on the run time scale than we’d like, but that is Marvel for you! With a run time of almost 3 solid hours, WAKANDA did at times feel like it was FOREVER.

    The movie gave a beautiful theatrical sendoff to Chadwick Boseman through the film, the emotions seemed to go beyond the fiction of the movie and seemed to showcase true emotions of the cast..

    And finally, the action sequences in Black Panther seemed original and inspired. Really, really good.

    Now on to the box office!

    It is expected that by the time the holiday weekend ends, WAKANDA will have earned over $18-185 million in the United States. Globally, the film is expected to exceed $300 million.

    From reports, it did not do as well in Asia Pacific markets–perhaps playing into that is China refusing to allow its release in that country.

    The $185 prediction knocks 2013’s HUNGER GAMES off the board in biggest November releases.

    Deadline reporting this on the stats of people exiting the movie:

    Audience exits still amazing for Wakanda Forever, with 93% on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak and an 85% definite recommend, with kids under 12 giving it a near 100% and 72% recommend. Guy-leaning at 52%, 45% between 18-34, with 37% over 35. Very diverse film at 44% Black-leading, 21% Hispanic and Latino, 20% Caucasian, and 15% Asian/other.


    DEVELOPING..

  • Corey Cunningham wins one for the killer

    Corey Cunningham wins one for the killer

    As much as some fans seem to hate HALLOWEEN ENDS, it has made money..

    As per The Numbers, with the money it earned on Thursday, November 3, the final entry in director David Gordon Green’s Halloween trilogy has earned $100.1 million at the global box office.

    That includes $62 million domestically and $38 million from overseas ticket sales. Historically, this series has always done better on the domestic side of things.

    Regardless, against a reported $20 million budget, that makes this a winner for Universal Pictures and Blumhouse.

    So.. this still means it Ends right ?

    Boy we hope..