After an absolutely unmerciful D+ CinemaScore in its opening weekend, most of us expected A24’s Hereditary to nosedive this weekend. Nope.

Ari Aster‘s Rosemary’s Baby-esque horror drama, which follows a grieving family descending into madness, dropped only 48% in its second week of release, pulling in an estimated $7M for a domestic total of $27M. As Exhibitor Relations notes, in ten days, Hereditary has already passed The Witch, which topped out with $25M.

Despite the CinemaScore, Hereditary opened last weekend by “overperforming” at the box office with an estimated $13M, which was shockingly A24’s largest opening ever. I had suggested a $25M-$30M box office run, although it now looks to top $40M.

[Read Also] Editorial: Hereditary and the True Horrors of the Grieving Process

Overhype and CinemaScore be damned! I’ve talked about expectations versus reality a few times over the past week, but it’s hard to be angry at A24 for doing their job and selling the fuck out of this movie. Maybe once expectations die down, it’ll finally allow people to digest this infectious drama that’s more Rosemary’s Baby and Ninth Gate than The Exorcist (horrible comparison).

Outside of box office, A24 has to be excited about the film’s outlook on VOD and home video. Toni Collette is nothing short of a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination, which should propel the film’s home video numbers come next January/February. Shit, maybe they’ll even re-release it in theaters and we can all re-experience the film without all the hype and just focus on the performances?

Hereditary was being buzzed as the scariest horror film in years. Our own Fred Topel loved the film, calling it “psychologically and viscerally grueling,” while Trace proclaimed that it “rewards your patience with nightmare fuel.”

In the film also starring Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro:

“When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.”