A24’s ‘undertone’ Scares Up $9.3 Box Office Opening

It’s always exciting when a completely DIY indie film gets studio backing and support, bringing it to a wider audience. Much like Paranormal Activity, the release of undertone relied heavily on its sound design – and what better place to experience that than in a Dolby-equipped theater?

A24 really found its voice with the marketing for Undertone, hyping it as “the scariest film you’ve ever heard.” The campaign smartly leaned into the movie’s biggest strength – its sound design – turning that element into the core of the theatrical experience and reinforcing the idea that it was best experienced in a Dolby-equipped theater. People showed up. It wasn’t the hit that Paranormal Activity was, but undertone did place third for an impressive $9.3M estimated domestic opening.

It’ll remain to be seen how strong word of mouth is on Ian Tuason‘s haunter, but truth be told, it’s pretty divisive and even earned a weak “C” CinemaScore. Still, studios need to take more chances like this and recognize how smaller budgets can set their films up for success. Imagine if an $80 million horror movie opened to just $10 million… we’d call it a bust. Actually, that already happened last week with The Bride!.

Undertone, made for just $500,000, is positioned to turn a profit even after factoring in A24’s acquisition and marketing spend, and it’s likely to perform even better once it hits streaming.

Tuason teased a trilogy, and while I doubt that it will actually come to fruition, it’ll be fun to see what he does with the next Paranormal Activity, which he’s more than qualified to take the reins on.

undertone follows the host of an ‘all-things-creepy’ podcast who moves into her dying mother’s house to become her primary caregiver. When her podcast is sent 10 strange audio recordings of a young pregnant couple experiencing paranormal noises, she realizes the woman’s story mirrors her own as each new recording scratches at her sanity, drawing her into a fate she cannot escape.