Horror is alive and well, though this week’s box office proved even the genre can suffer a few wounds.
Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Bride! – a unique, stylish, and energetic reworking of Frankenstein directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal – was anything but electric at the box office, failing to connect with critics or audiences. The film earned a mixed C+ CinemaScore, a 73% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter, and a 59% critics score. Read our review here.
The results were mixed and divisive, with audiences largely failing to connect with the 1930s Chicago-set story in which Frankenstein (Christian Bale) seeks a scientist’s help to create a companion, but the Bride’s (Jessie Buckley) resurrection unleashes chaos, crime, and a volatile romance.
The Bride! died this weekend with an estimated $7.3M opening this weekend, making it a rare horror flop that will likely flame out at around $25M domestically. It added only $6.3M overseas, for a cumulative $13.6M opening, which is brutal for an $80M price tag.
Last week, Paramount Pictures’ Scream 7 opened with a scream, breaking its own records and stabbing the competition with a massive $64.1M, far surpassing the initial $40M projection.
However, this weekend, Ghostface stumbled down the stairs. Early reports indicate a whopping 75% drop, earning it another estimated $16.3M (still not bad) for a domestic total of $92M. It’s closing in on $150 globally.
Interestingly, Scream 6 saw a similar drop, indicating that this franchise is heavily front-loaded, which means quicker turnaround time to streaming. Keep your eyes peeled.
Fun fact: With the film’s solid run so far, the long-running Scream franchise has crossed the $1 billion global box office milestone.
In the latest installment, when a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter (Isabel May) becomes the next target. Determined to protect her family, Sidney must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.
