“The Exorcist: Believer” did not meet expectations this weekend. In fact, red flags are starting to appear left and right.
Yes, ‘Believer’ easily topped the box-office with a $27M 3-day opening, and It easily recouped its $30 million budget with its $45M worldwide tally, but that’s not enough. Original estimates, from over a month ago, were eyeing a $40+ million opening.
It’s not looking good for Universal/Blumhouse. I don’t think this one will go beyond $70-$80 million domestically. No surprise then that director David Gordon Green has started hinting in interviews that he won’t be back for the next two films in the trilogy.
Back in 2021, Universal Studios purchased the horror franchise from Morgan Creek for $400M in the hopes of creating a blockbuster trilogy. That’s the buried lede here. Once all three movies have finally been released, they might not make their money back
While this new installment has already broken even, the numbers, while “decent,” don’t match Green’s 2018 ‘Halloween’ reboot which had an opening weekend of $76.2M. So, what happened? A few factors need to be weighed in here.
Lukewarm reviews didn’t help its cause. Also, I.P. fatigue is a real thing. Audiences are starting to wake up to the fact that Hollywood keeps recycling and rebooting franchises for a quick buck. If the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon taught us anything it’s that the quality of a film can still matter in building success.
Universal hopes ‘Believer’ will have some legs at the box-office as Halloween fast approaches. However, I don’t think those hopes will be met. What we might have here is a disaster for all parties involved.
Is “The Exorcist” truly the greatest horror film ever made, or has time crowned a new champion of fear? Maybe it’s “The Shining,” ‘Texas Chainsaw,’ “Psycho,” or something entirely unexpected that still keeps you up at night.