Horror flicks are having a great time at the summer box office this year. After Quiet Place Day One scurried past a significant box office $200 million worldwide milestone this week, becoming the highest-grossing film in the franchise, Nicholas Cage’s Neon Scarer Longlegs also broke a few records.
Longlegs earned a record-breaking $3 million in Thursday previews, surpassing Sydney Sweeney’s Immaculate, a first for the distributor Neon. The film stars scream queen legend Maika Monroe as an FBI agent and Nicholas Cage as a Serial Killer, also collected $10 million on Friday, including the previews. The film’s opening numbers surpassed 2023’s Nun 2’s $922, 4777 as the biggest opening for an R-rated movie.
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The high preview and opening gross indicate that the horror film may be headed for a huge debut weekend. The film, which has received good reviews, is estimated to earn around $20 million in the opening weekend.
Nun 2, despite being one of the best-performing horror flicks of 2023, earned $263 million at the global box office but underperformed during the opening day, raking in $922 477 from 722 theatres.
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Meanwhile, 2023’s Insidious a Red Door made $15.3 million on its first day, including $5 million from previews, but earned $186 million worldwide. Longlegs’ impressive opening-day earnings indicate the film is on track to become the biggest R-rated horror movie of 2024.
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Despite an 88% critic score, Horror fans were hard on Indie film on opening day, grading it with a C+ CinemaScore. Audiences were divided with their reception despite critics calling it “one of the most unsettling movies of the year.”
The film has landed an average 67% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. One audience in the review aggregator slammed the movie, saying, “Nice sets and scenery, storyline more muddled than scary, Nicholas Cage costume just dreadful.”
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Note: Box office numbers are based on estimates and various sources. Numbers have not been independently verified by Koimoi.
