Movies
[Box Office] ‘Midsommar’ Eclipsed by Clutter, Still Opens On Par with ‘Hereditary’
Hereditary director Ari Aster‘s cult following wasn’t strong enough to brainwash people into theaters for his Midsommar, which managed only $10.9M over the holiday weekend.
“Cult” is the appropriate word here as I’m not quite sure A24 expected more from their overly long arthouse horror film that had the displeasure of opening against Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home and going up against Toy Story in its third week of release, not to mention both Child’s Play and Annabelle Comes Home, which all ended up stealing the market from one another. Horror can work in the summer, but not when there’s clutter spreading the money across several releases.
Midsommar‘s (read our review) budget is reported at under $10M, which helps soften the blow if the film doesn’t manage a strong international release. With that said, it won’t take much for this film to trickle into the profit zone and I’m positive A24 isn’t sweating it. Hereditary opened to insane, over-the-top hype and only managed $13.5M in its opening weekend. The $10M here doesn’t come as a surprise to this writer, especially when Annabelle Comes Home only conjured up $20M in its opening. Anyone writing Midsommar‘s numbers off as a “flop” doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about.
Speaking of Annabelle Comes Home (read our review), the third film in the Conjuring spinoff franchise managed another $9.75M in its second week of release. It currently sits at $50M here in the States with a global total of $134M. Ironically, the film is struggling to muster up half of that of Annabelle: Creation. Even so, the franchise is hugely profitable and we should expect several more Conjuring films over the years.
As for Chucky and Orion’s Child’s Play (review) reboot, the film was slashed by 66% and added a measly $1.4M as it works its way out of theaters. With $26.8M here in the States and still no international numbers to account for, it’s becoming debatable as to if Orion moves forward on a sequel. In fact, the numbers are dwindling quicker than expected and may fall short of the $30-$40M domestic projection. With Orion rarely reporting international numbers, I can only assume they pre-sold territories for the release. Those unreported numbers will dictate how much of a hit or miss the new take actually was.
Next up is Paramount Pictures’ Crawl. Their Pet Sematary remake was a huge hit, can this Sam Raimi-produced/Alex Aja directed thriller take a bite out of the box office next weekend?
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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