Death is alive and well, at least in the movies, as Happy Death Day raked in an estimated $26.5 million at the box office over the first weekend. The movie is already being called a success considering that it was made with an extremely modest production budget of just $5 million.
One of the reasons the movie was such a hit could be the fact that the trailer of Happy Death Day was played before It, the Stephen King adaptation that has already grossed over $314.9 million in the United States, and $630 million globally. comScore media analyst Paul Dergarabedian says that this “exponentially increased” audience awareness.
Calling it a “horror gold rush at the theaters”, Dergarabedian referred to the positive environment that the horror genre provides in an otherwise lackluster box office year.
Happy Death Day has already replaced Blade Runner 2049 as the top movie this past weekend as the latter’s collections dropped 54% to hit a total of $60.6 million on its second weekend.
Happy Death Day is about a college student who takes matters into her own hands after being forced to relive her murderous birthday over and over again.
The top grossing movie this year, globally, is currently Beauty and the Beast with $1.26 billion in collections, followed by The Fate of the Furious at $1.23 billion and Despicable Me 3 at $1.02 billion.
Though the box office is experiencing one of its more tumultuous years, the horror genre is certainly pulling its own weight in theaters. More accurate collection figures will be out on Monday, but there’s already evidence that this particular genre has some more steam left as we approach Halloween 2017.
Thanks for visiting. Please support 1redDrop on social media: Facebook | Twitter
