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News Bites: ‘Shark Night 3D’ Gets Soft Rating, ‘Locke & Key’ Screens at SDCC, ‘True Blood’ Ending?

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13 years ago

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I woke up to three very brief stories that should probably be squeezed into a single report, starting with the unfortunate MPAA rating for David R. Ellis’ Shark Night 3D. Relativity’s thriller arriving in theaters September 2 was rated PG-13 “for violence and terror, disturbing images, sexual references, partial nudity, language and thematic material.” That’s a bummer considering how much blood and violence I was expecting to see. Maybe Ellis ran into problems with the “red” vanishing in the water? Hmmmmmm…..

I swore off the San Diego Comic-Con and figured there wasn’t a single thing that could make me jealous… I was wrong. Deadline is reporting that attendees will be the first ever to see the pilot episode of Locke & Key, the Mark Romanek-directed pilot presentation that was passed on by Fox. The “Locke & Key” session will be held on July 22 at 10:30 AM and will include a screening of the pilot, followed by a panel discussion featuring Hill, Rodriguez, the pilot’s writer/executive producer Josh Friedman and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. A+ for showing it, F- for passing….

Lastly, “True Blood” creator Alan Ball tells THR that HBO’s crazy popular vampire/werewolf drama may already be on its last leg: “Right now I’m in the middle of negotiating for a fifth season,” explained Ball. “I don’t know if I have any left in me after that. We’ll see.” Maybe big numbers for this Sunday’s premiere will change his mind… or maybe this is a negotiating tactic to get them to pay more? I’ll go with the latter.

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Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts

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23 mins ago

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April 19, 2024

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In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.

The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.

But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).

Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.

That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.

Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.

Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.

In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”

Abigail Melissa Barrera movie

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