Movies
‘Hereditary’ Possesses the Box Office Once Again and Tops A24’s ‘The Witch’
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.”
Movies
’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.
No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.
28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.
Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.
The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
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