News
‘Halloween’ Slashes Genre Records, Makes a Killing at the Box Office
David Gordon Green’s Halloween opened theatrically on October 19th, and the box office numbers are already breaking records. The highly-anticipated return to Haddonfield has grossed $77.5 million domestically, with a worldwide total of $91.8 million. That’s quite the opening weekend.
As noted by Variety, these numbers don’t quite beat Andy Muschietti’s IT – which totaled $123 million over its opening weekend, making it the most successful start for an R-rated horror film – but Halloween sits comfortably in second place for both R-rated horror and films with an October debut (falling just behind Venom‘s $80 million).
That said, Halloween has earned the well-deserved top spot in a few categories. Halloween destroyed the franchise record opening, which was previously resting at $26 million for Rob Zombie’s 2007 reboot. It also smashed into first place as Blumhouse’s best debut, previously held by Paranormal Activity 3 at $52.5 million.
Halloween can also celebrate two new records for women in horror. The film has taken the crown as the highest-grossing opening for a horror film with a female lead, and thanks to the return of scream queen supreme Jamie Lee Curtis in her iconic role as Laurie Strode, Halloween marks the biggest launch ever for a female lead over 55 years old.
Made with a budget of only $10 million, and currently sitting with a score of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, there are plenty of reasons for Blumhouse to celebrate.
“I am enormously proud of this film,” said Jason Blum. “‘Halloween’ brings the franchise back to life in a fresh, relevant and fun way that is winning over fans and critics alike.”
Halloween premiered at TIFF in September (read our review from the world premiere here!) and went on to screen at multiple festivals including Fantastic Fest and Sitges. Initial projections for Halloween showed an opening weekend estimate of $55 million.
Considering that many fans had the opportunity to see the film before its official opening weekend (and film festival numbers are typically not included in opening weekend totals), this is an impressive start.
Any time that a horror film does this well in the box office – whether you liked the movie or not – it’s a benefit for the genre as a whole.
Horror movies sell, and they sell well. This communicates a strong message to studios that there is a loyal, passionate audience for horror. It’s quickly become a legitimate, lucrative market that cannot be ignored.
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Movies
‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.
We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.
“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”
That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”
Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:
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Movies
‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
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News
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
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