In a shocking turn of events, indie horror threequel Terrifier 3 is projected to slash its way to exceeding the box office with an estimated haul between $17-18 million. The goriest, low-budget slasher directed by Damien Leone and starring David Howard Thornton as the sadistic Art the Clown, kicked off the weekend with a killer $8.2M Friday gross from 2,514 theaters.
With a reported budget by the guardian of under $2 million, Terrifier 3 is set to be a hugely profitable venture for distributor Cineverse and production company Icon Events. The film has ignited a firestorm on social media, fueled by reports of audience members fainting and vomiting during the film’s graphic kill scenes. Religious groups have also protested the film’s controversial “Satanic Santa” themes.
Despite or perhaps because of, the controversy, Terrifier 3 scored an impressive “B” CinemaScore from audiences, high marks for an extreme horror film. Positive word-of-mouth and the film’s yuletide setting could lead to an extended theatrical run through the holiday season, further fattening its coffers.
Horror’s New October Box Office King
Terrifier 3’s monstrous opening solidifies October as a lucrative launching pad for horror franchises. The Terrifier series, which started as a shoestring anthology film in 2016, has seen exponential budget and box office growth with each installment as Art the Clown emerges as a new icon of fright.
With a fourth film already greenlit, the Terrifier franchise is poised to carve out a profitable niche in the crowded horror market, even against bigger-budget studio fare like Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s. Merchandising tie-ins like Halloween costumes and action figures could further fuel the franchise’s growth.
Similar Posts:
Prestige Pics Sputter, Streaming’s Corrosive Effect?
As Terrifier 3 brings in big bucks, several high-profile awards contenders struggled to find an audience this weekend:
- Sony’s Saturday Night collected weak profits between $2 and $3 million
- Focus Features’ animated doc Piece by Piece drew a decent revenue of approximately $1.5 million
- Briarcliff Entertainment’s Trump biopic The Apprentice grossed just $590,000
- Despite mostly positive reviews, robust festival premieres, and full-court press campaigns, these prestige pics failed to connect with moviegoers. Some analysts speculate that streaming’s increasing dominance is siphoning adult audiences away from arthouses, making it harder for acclaimed but challengingly-themed fare to break through theatrically.
Joker 2’s Shocking 82% Sophomore Slump.
Perhaps the weekend’s biggest story is the catastrophic second-weekend collapse of Warner Bros’ Joker: Folie à Deux. After a disappointing $40 million debut, the Joaquin Phoenix/Lady Gaga musical crime drama plunged a disastrous 82% to just $6 to $7 million in its sophomore frame.
That’s the steepest second-weekend drop ever for a DC film, worse than the reviled Suicide Squad (-67%) and Batman v Superman (-69%). In fact, Joker 2’s freefall is among the worst second weekend drops in box office history, nearly as bad as the 84% crash of The Marvels earlier this year.
With an estimated $200 million budget and rapidly declining audience interest, Joker 2 looks to be a major money loser for Warner Bros, a worrying start for the new DC Studios regime under James Gunn and Peter Safran. The film’s high-concept blend of gritty crime drama and Gaga-led musical numbers has confused and alienated both DC fans and general audiences.
As Terrifier 3 tears up the box office and Joker 2 becomes an all-timer bomb, this weekend’s takeaways are clear:
- Never underestimate a niche horror franchise to find its audience.
- There must be more than big-name talent and great reviews to sell prestige fairs in the streaming era.
- Social media-driven controversies can drive, rather than depress, box office performance if properly managed.
Only time will tell if Terrifier 3 has the longevity to become a box-office legend, but for now, Art the Clown is grinning all the way to the bank.
