Movies
Halle Berry’s Berries Used To Sell ‘Dark Tide’
After being picked up by Lionsgate and Wrekin Hill Entertainment, a pretty boring poster has premiered for John Stockwell’s shark thriller Dark Tide, which features Halle Berry and those berries that made her so famous. It looks like they’re selling it as a surf movie as opposed to a horror-thriller. And what’s with the tagline – “In Shark Alley, courage runs deep…” – what the hell does that even mean?
Wrekin Hill acquired U.S. rights and will release the Halle Berry-Olivier Martinez action thriller on VOD, electronic sell-through and packaged media. The distribution plan leads off with a three-week Ultra VOD window on March 8th with a theatrical release on March 30th, culminating in a packaged media and Digital Download release.
In the film, “Kate (Halle Berry), shark naturalist and documentarian, has been reluctant to re-enter the water since the tragic death of her mentor. Once renowned for swimming with Great White Sharks without the protection of a cage, Kate now spends her days giving mundane wildlife tours. However, the surprise arrival of her old partner and boyfriend, Jeff (Olivier Martinez), convinces her to face her inner demons and get back in the water with the fiercest of predators.”
Dark Tide also stars Ralph Brown, Adi Shankar, Luke Stein, Mark Elderkin, Thoko Ntshinga and Sizwe Msutu. 
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
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.”
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