Movies
Producer Says ‘The First Purge’ is “More Personal” With a “Badass” Protagonist
The next Purge will be The First Purge, as the franchise’s concept is getting an origin story this coming July. As the title suggests, we’ll be given a front row seat to watch the very first annual Purge play out, and producer Andrew Form dug a bit into the differences between the upcoming film and the previous three in a chat with Cinema Blend.
For starters, he’s calling it a more “personal” film than the others.
“This Purge is about a neighborhood. It’s a lot of similar things, but it is specific to this neighborhood and to me, and I can’t believe I am going to say this and don’t quote me on it, but it feels more personal than the other Purge movies. It really does,” Form told the site. “I’ve seen the movie once and it was a long cut so I don’t want to lead you down a path if we end up changing it, but it just feels like a more personal story and the protagonist in this Purge is just a badass. He’s just a cool guy and it’s just a cool movie. It’s a really cool movie.”
He continued, talking about the social and political relevance of the movie, “[James] DeMonaco always seems to know what’s going to happen politically and culturally and I think he’s done that again with this one. Our story is about a group of people who don’t agree with what the government is doing and are trying to fight against it.”
Behind every tradition lies a revolution in The First Purge, arriving July 4, 2018…
“To push the crime rate below one percent for the rest of the year, the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) test a sociological theory that vents aggression for one night in one isolated community. But when the violence of oppressors meets the rage of the marginalized, the contagion will explode from the trial-city borders and spread across the nation.”
Coming off the most successful film in the series, The Purge: Election Year, creator James DeMonaco (writer/director of The Purge, The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year) returns alongside the producers of this worldwide phenomenon: Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum (Insidious series, Get Out, Split), Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ouija series, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and DeMonaco’s longtime production partner, Sébastien K. Lemercier (Assault on Precinct 13, Four Lovers).
The cast includes Y’Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Velez, and Marisa Tomei.
The First Purge is directed by Gerard McMurray (Burning Sands), working from a screenplay once again written by DeMonaco.
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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