While it’s definitely a horror movie, Clayface isn’t your typical horror movie at the box office. That’s of course because it’s a DC movie on top of it being a horror movie, making it a bit more difficult to determine whether or not the money it’s making is, well, ENOUGH. And that conversation was playing out across social media all weekend, as the numbers started coming in.
But first, let’s talk about those numbers…
Here in the United States, Clayface debuted in the #1 spot on the charts with $24 million across 3,458 theaters. Worldwide, DC’s body horror movie opened to a reported $43 million.
For most horror movies, these numbers would be pretty damn strong. But are we evaluating the box office performance of Clayface as a HORROR MOVIE or as a DC MOVIE? That’s a question that can best be answered by the film’s budget, with the reported price tag ranging anywhere from $30 million to $44 million. We don’t know the film’s exact budget at this time, but it’s probably safe to say it’s closer to $40 million than it is to that lowball $30 million estimate.
Let’s say the film cost $40 million. With a hefty marketing spend from Warner Bros. on top of that, and theaters taking a sizable portion of the box office profits, conventional wisdom would say that Clayface needs to hit at least $100 million before it reaches the point of profitability. With a $43 million worldwide head start after the first weekend, it’s likely that Clayface will indeed become profitable in theaters. But again we ask, is it going to be profitable ENOUGH?
DC Studios is now under the rule of James Gunn and Peter Safran, and their new universe is off to a wobbly start so far. James Gunn’s own $618 million hit Superman was followed by the relative flop that was Supergirl earlier this year, with the outside-the-box Clayface representing a new opportunity for the universe to scale back the budgets and stray from the traditional model for big studio superhero movies. Clayface, after all, is a full-on body horror movie, and the roughly $40 million price tag ensures – at the very least – that it cannot be a complete and total failure.
But is a $24 million U.S. opening for a WB/DC comic book horror movie enough of a win for the studios to continue down that path? And would they be likely to take a chance on another outside-the-box comic book movie in the future? These are the questions that are hanging in the balance this week, with the performance of Clayface in the coming weeks likely to paint a clearer picture.
Earlier this year, Scary Movie opened to $55 million. Resident Evil opened to $60 million. Scream 7 opened to $63 million. And Backrooms opened to $81 million. With that context in mind, a high profile comic book movie from Warner Bros. and DC opening to just $24 million at the U.S. box office isn’t exactly a big win for DC movies or even for bigger budget horror movies period.
But let’s not count Clayface out just yet. The reviews are strong and Halloween is on the horizon this week, so we could be in store for a monstrous second weekend. Stay tuned for updates.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Clayface review for Bloody Disgusting, “DC isn’t skittishly toe-dipping into its first-ever foray into the genre with Clayface; it’s a full-on body horror movie filled with squirm-inducing moments. James Watkins delivers a gnarly introduction to Batman’s foe, but the serious body horror clashes with standard superhero villainy in the back half.”
“There are no post-credit scenes to be found here connecting to the broader DC universe,” Meagan notes in her review, “just a gross-out crowd-pleaser that stands alone on its own merits.”
