Horror at the Box Office: 2 Holdovers in the Top Ten
In an expectedly tepid weekend for horror, no genre films appeared among the top five grossers, with two residing in the top ten. Superheroes and dinosaurs are dominating the summer box office, and horror has been put on the back burner for now.
28 Years Later was again the top genre performer, finishing in sixth place in its fourth weekend with an estimated $2.7 million. This is a drop of just 40% from the previous weekend, showing impressive staying power.
It’s grossed approximately $65 million domestically and $138 million worldwide. Solid numbers all around for the $60 million production. A fourth installment of the series, which has already been filmed, is on the way next year.
The fast fading M3gan 2.0 finished in 9th place with an estimated $1.35 million (a drop of 65% from the previous weekend) for a domestic total of a little over $22 million. It’s earned $36 million worldwide on a reported $25 million budget.
Horror is in the doldrums right now. July is rarely a big month for the genre. This is the second week in a row with no new theatrical releases. It’s debatable whether M3gan 2.0 even qualifies as horror, so one could argue that this is the third consecutive weekend without a new scare flick. That streak will be snapped next week.
Looking Ahead
The I Know What You Did Last Summer series makes its return next weekend. The last time a IKWYDLS movie hit theaters was way back in 1998.
Final Destination had tremendous success returning after a long absence, and 28 Years has also found box office prosperity. I Know What You Did Last Summer has been absent from theaters for even longer than those franchises, and I’m not sure there’s still a large fanbase for The Fisherman’s antics.
I’m really interested to see how this movie performs. It could go either way. Will reviews be kind? I doubt it. But the lack of horror competition will help.
After IKWYDLS, the next big horror release is the body horror movie Together on July 31st. This one is a critical darling, with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Will that be enough to compete at the box office? Critics loved Companion and Drop, too, but both had middling results commercially.
Things ramp up big time starting in August, but, for now, horror is taking a backseat and waiting to get closer to the spooky season.
Credit to Box Office Mojo for the figures cited.
