Horror At The Box Office: ‘Yard’ Upsets ‘Unicorn’
Neither new horror movie reached the top of the box office in a dreary weekend that punctuated cinemas’ weak first quarter.
Buoyed by its creepy trailers, The Woman in the Yard notched a respectable gross of about $9.5 million in its first weekend, good enough for a fourth place finish.
The $12 million flick received tepid reviews, but that didn’t keep it from achieving a surprising victory over its horror rival, Death of a Unicorn. Unfortunately, word of mouth is not great, so it will probably fizzle quickly. Still, the film is likely to notch a decent profit.
While it may well perform better internationally and/or on streaming, there’s no sugarcoating it – Death of a Unicorn is off to a really disappointing start. The heavily promoted $15 million film, which features two major stars (Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd), earned just under $6 million.
It finished in fifth place. This is another major disappointment for A24, although at least Unicorn didn’t perform as poorly as Opus.
I was one of the few people who watched this movie last weekend (in a nearly empty theater on a Saturday evening) and I enjoyed it. I’ll have much more to say in my upcoming review.
Why did Unicorn underperform? I have a couple of theories. One is the R rating. This likely damaged the movie’s commercial prospects by making it difficult for Ortega’s young fans to see it.
I’m not sure how strict theaters are about enforcing the “no one under 17 admitted without a parent or guardian” rule these days, but her Gen Z fanbase probably figured it would be easier to wait and stream it in a few weeks.
Another issue – typecasting. Jenna Ortega plays a troubled teen in Death of a Unicorn, just like in Wednesday and You and Scream and Beetlejuice. She’s great at playing this type of character, but enough already. It’s time for her to transition to adult roles. This may explain her reported interest in the Single White Female remake.
Will Horror Ever Have a major Hit in 2025?
Horror still hasn’t had a major theatrical hit since Nosferatu in December. The next big release is the heavily hyped Sinners on April 18th. Box office analysts are already predicting a big opening weekend for the film. Others to watch for are Clown in a Cornfield (May 9th) and Final Destination Bloodlines (May 16th).
Credit to Box Office Mojo for the figures cited.
