It’s box office time again, and I’m not going to bore you guys this week with a long rant. You […]
It’s box office time again, and I’m not going to bore you guys this week with a long rant.
You can go back and read my thoughts from the past few weeks if you want the bigger picture. Right now, we’re just going to celebrate some milestones as the horror genre continues to slap the box office around and fuck the shit out of every other movie attempting to open.
Things are finally starting to calm down a little bit. The weather is getting nicer. Summer is here. Disney has arrived with Toy Story 5 and is doing exactly what Disney does. Yet somehow, all these horror movies are still standing tall. They’re still making money. They’re still holding. They’re still proving that longer theatrical windows and word of mouth matter.
Let’s start with the big one.
Obsession crossed $200 million domestic and $300 million worldwide this weekend.
Holy shit.
That puts the film among the biggest horror movies of all time. We’re talking about a movie that has now surpassed Get Out, The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and Halloween (2018). It’s officially standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the biggest horror releases the genre has ever seen.
And it deserves every penny.
Argue with me all you want. The movie is perfect.
Inde Navarrette delivers the kind of performance that should have awards voters paying attention. I’ll argue all day that Toni Collette deserved recognition for Hereditary, and I’ll do the exact same thing here. I don’t care. Come find me.
The craziest part is that this wasn’t supposed to happen. Yet here we are.
And somehow we’ve all been so focused on that we’ve almost forgotten that is right there breathing down its neck.
The A24 phenomenon crossed $175 million domestic and $100 million internationally this weekend and has also surprised a $300 million worldwide haul!
And yes, much like Obsession, it’s blowing past the same horror heavyweights. The Blair Witch Project. Halloween (2018). Get Out. The difference is that we’re barely talking about it because Obsession has sucked all the oxygen out of the room.
Still, this is also fucking insane. Both with Blumhouse and Atomic Monster’s names on it. Wild.
A year ago, nobody would’ve believed we’d be talking about Backrooms and Obsession in the same sentence as some of the biggest horror movies ever released. Now both movies will finish their runs with worldwide grosses north of $300 million.
That’s not normal. That’s not supposed to happen. Yet here we are.
Then there’s Scary Movie.
Like Backrooms, it came out with a bang. Huge opening weekend. A substantial second-week drop that everyone expected. And now it’s settling into a healthy theatrical run.
The reboot crossed $100 million domestic and $100 million internationally this weekend for a $200 million worldwide haul.
Not bad for a franchise that many people had written off years ago.
It’s already one of the biggest entries in the franchise’s history, and there will absolutely be another one. Hopefully they learn a few things from this one.
The problem with a lot of these modern parody movies is that they’re so focused on joke delivery and reference points that they forget story matters. The original Scary Movie worked because underneath all the jokes was an actual movie. It was basically a riff on Scream with comedy layered over the top.
If they’re going to make another one, and they are, the answer is staring them right in the face.
Just do Obsession.
Take the exact structure of Obsession, inject the jokes, and call it a day. I’m telling you right now that’s probably what they’re doing. Buckle up.
Then there’s Leviticus.
Let’s be honest. This isn’t the strongest movie in NEON’s lineup, and they knew it.
Not every release can be Longlegs. Not every release can be The Monkey. Not every acquisition can become the next breakout phenomenon.
NEON is still a relatively young company building a pipeline, and there are only so many films you can get into production every year.
Leviticus was an easy Sundance pickup. It had a clear hook, a timely message, and enough conversation surrounding it to justify a worldwide acquisition. International sales likely did a lot of the heavy lifting before the film ever reached theaters.
Domestically, they took a swing.
The film opened to around $3 million.
People keep throwing around the word flop, but that’s not really what this is. Not every movie needs to open to $30 million. This is a modest specialty release on a modest film. It’ll make what it’s going to make, find an audience on streaming, and everyone involved will move on to the next project.
As for the movie itself, I liked it more than most. It’s got some very obvious It Follows DNA running through its veins, but I appreciated where it was coming from. There’s a clear mission statement underneath all of it. It’s topical. It’s angry. It’s pulling from a very modern place and using horror to explore the way hate spreads through society.
Whether it completely lands is up for debate, but I respect the attempt. I wish more people had gone out to see it. They didn’t. It is what it is.
That’s probably the last huge milestone week for a little while. The summer schedule is about to get crowded, Disney is starting to gobble up screens, and movies like Obsession are beginning to eye their eventual streaming debuts.
But it doesn’t really matter.
The damage has already been done.
Obsession, Backrooms, and Scary Movie have all become massive theatrical success stories, proving once again that horror remains one of the safest bets in Hollywood. Whether it’s original IP, internet weirdness, or a legacy franchise, horror fans continue showing up.
