Movies
Eli Roth’s ‘Thanksgiving’ Slashes into $12 Million Worldwide Debut
Sixteen years after the film’s trailer premiered as part of the Grindhouse theatrical experience, Eli Roth’s slasher movie Thanksgiving carved its way into theaters over the weekend.
The rated “R” bloodbath was produced for just $15 million, a number that the film is likely to pass in the coming days. Here in the United States, Thanksgiving scared up $10.2 million in its debut weekend, with the film’s worldwide opening bringing the current total to $12.6 million.
While not exactly a massive opening weekend for Roth’s return to horror – factoring in marketing costs and other factors, Thanksgiving likely needs to hit $30 million before it starts making a profit – it’s just great to see a bloody-as-hell, old school slasher carving out a piece of the box office pie here in 2023. And most importantly, fans and critics alike are raving about the back-to-basics slasher, which currently has an 83% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.
One has to wonder if Thanksgiving will drop significantly once the Thanksgiving holiday comes and goes this week, but Roth’s latest still has a handful of days to capitalize on the holiday theming. We’ll be keeping our eyes on this one in the coming days, so stay tuned.
The film, an expansion of Roth’s faux trailer seen in Grindhouse (2007), was released in theaters worldwide by TriStar Pictures and Spyglass Media Group (Scream).
In Thanksgiving, “After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts – the birthplace of the infamous holiday.”
The cast for the feature length slasher movie includes Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Jalen Thomas Brooks (“Walker”), Milo Manheim (Zombies), Nell Verlaque (“Big Shot”), Gina Gershon (“Chucky”), Tim Dillon and Rick Hoffman (Hostel).
Roth wrote the script with Jeff Rendell. Roger Birnbaum and Eli Roth are producing.
NEON has been absolutely slaying the marketing game for their horror output this year, and they’re kicking the Longlegs campaign into high gear with one more month until release.
A cryptic ad in The Seattle Times today (seen below) has led clever horror fans to discover TheBirthdayMurders.net, the brand new official viral marketing website for Longlegs.
The in-universe website details the victims of the serial killer known as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage), described as a “Satan-worshipping psycho” who has terrorized families throughout the Pacific Northwest for nearly three decades.
The website details, “A bloody trail of bodies here in the great state of Oregon attests to the depraved savagery of this one-of-a-kind serial killer. With over three dozen victims that we know of, LONGLEGS is one of the most prolific mass murderers ever to have graced the region, and his gruesome endeavors are the stuff of nightmares. At first, all of the killings appeared to be straightforward murder-suicides: the handiwork of average men who suddenly snapped and slaughtered their wives and children. But a series of eerie coded messages left at the crime scenes indicate that someone – or something – is influencing these horrific crimes. The cryptic letters are signed by someone calling himself LONGLEGS.”
“With thirty-eight kills to his name, LONGLEGS has torn apart the lives of eleven different families throughout the Beaver State. His victims were good people: honest fathers, decent mothers, innocent little children.”
The website is loaded with secrets, clues, and gruesome (faux) crime scene photos, and you might even find a mention of yours truly nestled in there. Poke around. Stay a while.
Longlegs arrives in theaters July 12.
The upcoming serial killer horror movie marks the return of director Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel & Hansel). Nicolas Cage stars alongside Maika Monroe, with Monroe playing an FBI agent and Cage playing a serial killer.
In the film, “FBI Agent Lee Harker (Monroe) is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer (Cage). As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.
The film is rated “R” for “Bloody violence, disturbing images and some language.”
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