It’s been a busy few weeks for horror lately, as we’ve had a new genre opening every week now since Child’s Play started us out on June, 21.
A crowded marketplace has meant competition for horror fans has been tough, and we see this again this weekend, as another film seems to fail to meet its box office potential.
Crawl, the new movie from Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes) opens in third this weekend, and Paramount Pictures may be kicking themselves here for leaving money on the table. The film’s review embargo opened on Friday to reveal terrific reviews for the Gators in a storm flick, but Paramount failed to give the movie any press screenings, perhaps assuming they had a dud on their hands. No screenings meant the movie couldn’t build buzz about it’s quality, and it opened in the expected range at $12M.
The budget for this one has been reported at a very low $13.5M, and it should make about $30-35M before leaving theatres. This is actually a similar opening and total to Aja’s other creatures in the water flick, Pirahna 3D.
Falling 41% to seventh this weekend is Annabelle Comes Home which has been holding well after a relatively lackluster opening in terms of the Conjuring Universe films. A total of $60M is still far behind what the previous movie Annabelle: Creation had made at this point, but if it continues to hold as it has, the final box office won’t be as dire as first assumed from its opening weekend.
That leaves Ari Aster’s Midsommar falling 44% to eighth with $3.5M in what is likely to be a small win for A24. I think most were expecting the movie to completely collapse this weekend, but with strong social media attention, the cultish horror seems to have become a small conversation point. A total of $30M and a long life on streaming will likely make this one just as profitable as Hereditary was before it.
Small slasher movie Trespassers also opened in limited release this weekend, but no numbers were reported as it was also available on VOD. You will find our review for the Orson Oblowitz film dropping tomorrow.
Horror finally takes a break the new few weekends, until Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark drops on August 9th. We will be back next week covering Crawl’s second weekend.
