Roadside Attractions and Saban Films have a bona fide surprise indie hit on their hands with Buddy, and I don’t […]
Roadside Attractions and Saban Films have a bona fide surprise indie hit on their hands with Buddy, and I don’t think a single person expected this.
Casper Kelly’s truly bizarre analog-esque throwback to ‘90s children’s television, where Barney is essentially a psychotic, killing stuffed unicorn, opened to more than $5 million, more than doubling initial projections.
The big question heading into weekend two was how far this thing could actually go.
Well, Buddy just topped its own opening weekend.
The film pulled in approximately $5.7 million over its second weekend, up from $5.3 million in its debut, while expanding from 1,258 to 1,771 theaters. Forbes notes that it’s only the second R-rated independent non-franchise movie this year to actually increase in its second weekend.
That’s crazy.
And I’m going to make a prediction right now: Buddy is going to make even more money next weekend.
I’m feeling pretty confident about this because something has changed over the past few days. Buddy isn’t just performing at the box office anymore. It’s going hyper-viral.
Clips have been circulating for the past couple of weeks, connecting with that nostalgic sweet tooth of the younger older generation who grew up on shit like Barney & Friends. But this weekend, it feels like the movie has broken through into something else.
Everyone is suddenly talking about Buddy.
One of the biggest stories circulating right now is that parents are allegedly buying tickets to Buddy for their kids, not realizing that the cute orange unicorn movie is actually a fucking R-rated horror movie.
There have even been videos circulating that supposedly show angry parents storming out of theaters and demanding refunds.
Here’s the problem: I can’t find a single video that I can actually verify.
In fact, at least one of the videos being passed around as evidence appears to be old. Eagle-eyed viewers noticed a poster for The Barn, which came out a decade ago, sitting behind the theater employee in the clip.
So I’m not embedding that shit and pretending it’s something it isn’t.
The actual stories, however, appear to have some truth to them. Wide Open Country collected reports of parents mistakenly bringing children to Buddy, while theater employees and moviegoers have been sharing similar stories on Reddit.
Is every one of those stories true? Who the fuck knows. But there are enough independent accounts that it certainly appears some parents really are taking their kids to see Buddy without realizing what they’ve bought tickets for.
And whether this entire thing happened organically or somebody saw what was happening and decided to pour gasoline on it, it’s working.
Buddy is going hyper-viral.
And this is where I’m going to get a little cocky.
There aren’t a lot of things I’ll publicly tell you I’m fucking great at. I have imposter syndrome about plenty of shit. Releasing horror movies theatrically isn’t one of them.
I know what this looks like.
I lived it with Terrifier 2.
I helped release that movie theatrically in 2022, and it opened to just $805,000. Then something happened.
It went up.
According to Box Office Mojo, Terrifier 2 jumped 28% in its second weekend to $1.03 million.
Then it went nuts.
Weekend three jumped another 70% to $1.76 million. Weekend four went up again, another 8.5%, to $1.9 million. By the end of its domestic theatrical run, that little $805,000 opening had turned into $10.64 million.
I’m getting that feeling again.
Buddy and Terrifier 2 are completely different movies. Different audiences. Different demographics. Different circumstances.
But I know the behavior.
There’s a moment when a movie stops being something people are merely going to see and starts becoming something people feel like they need to participate in.
That’s what happened with Terrifier 2.
And I think that’s what’s happening right now with Buddy.
The funniest part is that everyone seems to be talking about Buddy right now except mainstream press.
They will.
Give it a few days. They’ll catch up, especially after I post this article and they all copy me.
And when that happens, I think this thing is going to fucking explode.
I’m calling it right now: Buddy is going up again next weekend.
Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll find out. But I’m rarely wrong about this shit, and if Roadside expands the theater count again while all of this social media insanity continues spilling into the mainstream, I think we’re entering Terrifier 2 territory.
Not in gross. Not in audience. In trajectory.
This thing has the potential to snowball through September and stick around into October.
And remember when I was already asking whether we’re going to get a Buddy 2?
You can bank on that happening.
I’ll bet all my marbles. You’re getting Buddy 2 whether you like it or not. I’m going to force it down your throat.
For those somehow still wondering what the hell this movie is, Buddy takes place inside the seemingly innocent world of the children’s television series It’s Buddy!, where the lovable orange unicorn mascot begins to crack when one of the kids refuses to play along. Keegan-Michael Key voices Buddy, with Cristin Milioti, Topher Grace, Michael Shannon, Delaney Quinn, Patton Oswalt and Eric Bauza among the cast.
Kelly directed and co-wrote the film with Jamie King, but he’s probably still best known as the lunatic responsible for Too Many Cooks, which remains one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life.
Horror fans should also know Kelly from V/H/S/Halloween. He wrote and directed our absolutely bonkers “Fun Size” segment, which you can watch right now on Shudder.
Check it out.
And check back with me next weekend when we find out if I’m still as good at this as I think I am.
