Horror At The Box Office: Heart Eyes Slays Valentine’s Day Weekend
Buoyed by Valentine’s Day, Heart Eyes bucked the normal horror movie trend and actually improved on the box office grosses from its first weekend. The holiday slasher comedy is estimated to earn $10 million over the three day weekend and $11.1 million counting Monday’s Presidents Day holiday, ranking it in fourth place for the weekend. That’s about half of its total $22 million Heart Eyes gross since release.
Heart Eyes has only been released in North America. Now that the holiday has passed, it seems unlikely that Sony will bother with a major theatrical international release. Of course, the film will eventually end up on streaming platforms that will be accessible in many parts of the world.
Heart Eyes‘ performance is respectable, but will it be enough to earn a sequel? That’s impossible to say at this point. Its grosses are likely to decline significantly now that we’re past Valentine’s Day. But the movie, which cost $18 million to make (not counting marketing), has a good chance of notching profitability.
A follow-up could depend on how it performs on streaming platforms. The last major Valentine’s Day slasher was My Bloody Valentine 3-D in 2009. In an era when streaming was in its infancy, that movie slashed its way to a powerful $24 million (equivalent to about $36 million today) opening over the four day President’s Day Weekend.
The only other horror movie to make the top ten is Companion, which is projected to gross just over $2 million during the four day frame, putting its domestic total at about $19 million after 3 weeks. It’s made over $30 million worldwide on a $10 million budget.
Horror’s last major theatrical hit was Nosferatu in December. Of course, it’s difficult to make huge grosses in theaters due to the easy accessibility of watching movies online, plus the fact that movie theater tickets are ridiculously expensive these days. When I went to see Heart Eyes, my ticket cost more than my monthly Netflix subscription fee.
I’m sure that the makers of Heart Eyes and Companion hoped that their movies would be breakout hits. Instead they’ve had good, but not great, results. I think both, especially Companion, have a strong chance to perform well on streaming.
Credit to Deadline for the box office figures.
