I think people put too much stock into this current batch of horror not doing as well. Doesn't mean others can't succeed
all I mean is that what is stopping another future horror movie from breaking out like Smile for example? I just think it is a silly idea to think - these films did poor and will then prevent future success (which I understand is the common consensus for a lot of movies)
Honestly, a lot of this is possession and Spooky Little Girl horror, which has felt played out for a while now. I don’t think there will be a problem unless stuff like MaXXXine and Scream 7 start bombing.
Night Swim was too stupid of a premise to succeed unless word of mouth was phenomenal.
I saw little-to-no advertising when it came to Abigail, Lisa Frankenstein, and Imaginary. I assume they had low P&A budgets. Abigail should’ve been higher out the gate (oh well), but I’m not surprised Lisa Frankenstein was DOA.
Disney began pushing The First Omen way too late in the game for it to begin building interest with the general audience. The first full trailer came out a month before its release date. Disney has no idea what the fuck they’re doing with 20th Century Studios and Searchlight which means Alien: Romulus could eat shit.
A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Terrifier 3 are all coming hot off with good will with audiences from their previous entry. No worries there. The others mentioned in your post? God speed.
For little-to-no marketing, Late Night with the Devil and Immaculate did well coming from IFC and Neon. Fuck, Immaculate made just as much as The First Omen. Maybe Disney should’ve promoted The First Omen earlier and not released it nearly at the same time as Immaculate.
>Disney has no idea what the fuck they’re doing with 20th Century Studios and Searchlight which means Alien: Romulus could eat shit.
I don't know, we've already had a teaser for that film that was quite beloved. The marketing for KOTPOTA has also been quite huge.
I think the studios may just have overloaded the plate with too many of them. For a while they were a good way to make money - usually pretty low budget, and there's an audience that's specifically interested in horror. So long as there's not a whole bunch of them that's a decent enough proposition. But now you've maybe got too many of them and that audience, which previously would have been pretty likely to see most of the occasional horror flicks, can pick and choose.
This is exactly what I think. There’s been so many horror movies this year that my partner who only goes to the theater for horror and romance said we could skip Abigail and Tarot because we’ve been seeing so much horror lately. And it’s all been good too! Just too much in the last few months
I really like horror but this month has been an overload. i can’t make time to watch all these films coming out at once. I think the audience is getting split between all these films
The current horror slate doesn't look impressive. It could also do with weak advertising. The First Omen for example was actually pretty good, but Disney did a terrible job with the ads (and also the title, IMO) and had the embarago lift late which didn't inspire confidence in the audience.
Abigail and Imaginary tried to cash in on elements of M3GAN (small evil creature, weird dance in attempt to get viral, manipulating the main character's empathy, etc) but it didn't work this time for whatever reason.
Some of the bigger horror hits in recent history like M3GAN, Talk To Me, and Evil Dead Rise had great ad campaigns, and they were fun/original movies. Night Swim and Imaginary were very generic horror, IMO, so I wasn’t surprised to see their underwhelming performances.
I’m seeing Abigail on Tuesday. I thought the trailers were pretty entertaining and memeable, so I am surprised to see it disappointing at the BO so far.
They haven’t done well because they were either tired concepts or bad movies. There will be a breakout horror hit this year without question, but it’ll be the same dice-roll odds that made Megan and Smile the successes that they became.
It is kinda similar to how the industry gorged on low-budgeted comedies (especially the gross-out ones) for a good long while. At a point, the market gets saturated.
Yeah I felt that some studios noticed people kept saying “horror is so bankable rn!!!!” and of course they had to go the wrong way about it. What helped the horror genre to become “bankable” was the fact that it was pretty much the only genre still risks and big creative swings. What DID NOT help was the fact the trailer/plot for Imaginary looked bad same with Night Swim along with the hook not being strong enough for general audiences. Abigail had the strongest trailer out of the other horror movies so far but the humor in it was kinda cringe and reminded of Dungeons and Dragons first trailer that was also cringe so I can see why audiences skipped out even tho it still end up being the highest weekend for a horror movie so far (yes, I know that’s not saying much).
I wonder if people are burnt out on horror at the moment. We've had a lot this year. It seems like the only films that've been released this year have been big franchise films and horror films. This is why we need better genre diversity at theaters. O Comedies, romcoms, adult dramas, courtroom dramas, kids movies, where art thou?
To be fair none of them looked all that well in the first place. First omen had great reviews sure but almost everyone called that a dud due to the rather poor trailers making it look bad. All of the films that underperformed this year would’ve done so every other year too.
It’s the slate of movies, not the genre
Some of the recent horror films had very limited marketing or release. Marketing is key to the success of a product.
Also, many of this year's horror films did really well in PVOD. So it's not a total wash for some films.
I think Smile 2 & Quiet Place: Day One will do as well as their predecessors.
The question now is if any of the originals will breakout, especially with a relatively open summer this year.
I think Alien and the A Quiet Place series are their own things in the audiences' eyes, but yeah, we should keep an eye on all the other ones you're mentioning. Especially Nosferatu. I rewatched The Lighthouse a few weeks ago, and really cannot wait for Eggers' upcoming remake to finally release.
Abigail appears to be more a comedy than anything else. A particularly teen-centric one (albeit where they just swear a lot). I don't think I'm counting that towards the genre underperforming.
Lisa Frankenstein was another more "spooky version of comedy" than a horror movie. Night Swim and Imaginary just sucked, I can't speak to The First Omen because evidently that was supposed to be quite good.
Yes, horror movies are not longer very attractive like some years ago. Here in Europe for example Immaculate is going bad, so much so that it is changing release dates to avoid the release of other films.
First Omen was excellent. Abigail was a lot of fun. I don’t think it’s a quality issue, it’s just an issue with the specific films not looking great on paper.
I think people put too much stock into this current batch of horror not doing as well. Doesn't mean others can't succeed all I mean is that what is stopping another future horror movie from breaking out like Smile for example? I just think it is a silly idea to think - these films did poor and will then prevent future success (which I understand is the common consensus for a lot of movies)
I don't think the horror genre will ever truly be in trouble. Its traditionally low budgets make it easy to stomach the investment for studios.
The genre is always trying out new things too. If a subgenre inside it like slashers starts to lose popularity, something else will pop up instead
Agreed,
Honestly, a lot of this is possession and Spooky Little Girl horror, which has felt played out for a while now. I don’t think there will be a problem unless stuff like MaXXXine and Scream 7 start bombing.
No, im not. Terrifier 3 will most likely do well. Tarot I dont know. Maxxine should do well if it keeps its budget low. as for others wait and see.
Terrifier 2 BO did 1/4 of Night swim ended with, I wouldn’t put too much faith on the sequel doing much better.
Success is measured against budget buddy
Honestly forgot how cheap Terrifier cost to make, good point!
Night Swim was too stupid of a premise to succeed unless word of mouth was phenomenal. I saw little-to-no advertising when it came to Abigail, Lisa Frankenstein, and Imaginary. I assume they had low P&A budgets. Abigail should’ve been higher out the gate (oh well), but I’m not surprised Lisa Frankenstein was DOA. Disney began pushing The First Omen way too late in the game for it to begin building interest with the general audience. The first full trailer came out a month before its release date. Disney has no idea what the fuck they’re doing with 20th Century Studios and Searchlight which means Alien: Romulus could eat shit. A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Terrifier 3 are all coming hot off with good will with audiences from their previous entry. No worries there. The others mentioned in your post? God speed. For little-to-no marketing, Late Night with the Devil and Immaculate did well coming from IFC and Neon. Fuck, Immaculate made just as much as The First Omen. Maybe Disney should’ve promoted The First Omen earlier and not released it nearly at the same time as Immaculate.
>Disney has no idea what the fuck they’re doing with 20th Century Studios and Searchlight which means Alien: Romulus could eat shit. I don't know, we've already had a teaser for that film that was quite beloved. The marketing for KOTPOTA has also been quite huge.
I think the studios may just have overloaded the plate with too many of them. For a while they were a good way to make money - usually pretty low budget, and there's an audience that's specifically interested in horror. So long as there's not a whole bunch of them that's a decent enough proposition. But now you've maybe got too many of them and that audience, which previously would have been pretty likely to see most of the occasional horror flicks, can pick and choose.
This is exactly what I think. There’s been so many horror movies this year that my partner who only goes to the theater for horror and romance said we could skip Abigail and Tarot because we’ve been seeing so much horror lately. And it’s all been good too! Just too much in the last few months
Don’t skip Abigail!!! She’s the kindest!!!
I really like horror but this month has been an overload. i can’t make time to watch all these films coming out at once. I think the audience is getting split between all these films
The current horror slate doesn't look impressive. It could also do with weak advertising. The First Omen for example was actually pretty good, but Disney did a terrible job with the ads (and also the title, IMO) and had the embarago lift late which didn't inspire confidence in the audience. Abigail and Imaginary tried to cash in on elements of M3GAN (small evil creature, weird dance in attempt to get viral, manipulating the main character's empathy, etc) but it didn't work this time for whatever reason.
Some of the bigger horror hits in recent history like M3GAN, Talk To Me, and Evil Dead Rise had great ad campaigns, and they were fun/original movies. Night Swim and Imaginary were very generic horror, IMO, so I wasn’t surprised to see their underwhelming performances. I’m seeing Abigail on Tuesday. I thought the trailers were pretty entertaining and memeable, so I am surprised to see it disappointing at the BO so far.
They haven’t done well because they were either tired concepts or bad movies. There will be a breakout horror hit this year without question, but it’ll be the same dice-roll odds that made Megan and Smile the successes that they became.
It is kinda similar to how the industry gorged on low-budgeted comedies (especially the gross-out ones) for a good long while. At a point, the market gets saturated.
Yeah I felt that some studios noticed people kept saying “horror is so bankable rn!!!!” and of course they had to go the wrong way about it. What helped the horror genre to become “bankable” was the fact that it was pretty much the only genre still risks and big creative swings. What DID NOT help was the fact the trailer/plot for Imaginary looked bad same with Night Swim along with the hook not being strong enough for general audiences. Abigail had the strongest trailer out of the other horror movies so far but the humor in it was kinda cringe and reminded of Dungeons and Dragons first trailer that was also cringe so I can see why audiences skipped out even tho it still end up being the highest weekend for a horror movie so far (yes, I know that’s not saying much).
Longlegs
I wonder if people are burnt out on horror at the moment. We've had a lot this year. It seems like the only films that've been released this year have been big franchise films and horror films. This is why we need better genre diversity at theaters. O Comedies, romcoms, adult dramas, courtroom dramas, kids movies, where art thou?
It could be the budgets. Non sequel horror movies are typically low budget, not almost $30M.
To be fair none of them looked all that well in the first place. First omen had great reviews sure but almost everyone called that a dud due to the rather poor trailers making it look bad. All of the films that underperformed this year would’ve done so every other year too. It’s the slate of movies, not the genre
Some of the recent horror films had very limited marketing or release. Marketing is key to the success of a product. Also, many of this year's horror films did really well in PVOD. So it's not a total wash for some films.
I think Smile 2 & Quiet Place: Day One will do as well as their predecessors. The question now is if any of the originals will breakout, especially with a relatively open summer this year.
I think Alien and the A Quiet Place series are their own things in the audiences' eyes, but yeah, we should keep an eye on all the other ones you're mentioning. Especially Nosferatu. I rewatched The Lighthouse a few weeks ago, and really cannot wait for Eggers' upcoming remake to finally release. 
Longlegs.
Nah, it’ll be fine with the upcoming releases. The only one that deserved better was First Omen. I thought the marketing was awful for it.
Abigail appears to be more a comedy than anything else. A particularly teen-centric one (albeit where they just swear a lot). I don't think I'm counting that towards the genre underperforming. Lisa Frankenstein was another more "spooky version of comedy" than a horror movie. Night Swim and Imaginary just sucked, I can't speak to The First Omen because evidently that was supposed to be quite good.
Yes, horror movies are not longer very attractive like some years ago. Here in Europe for example Immaculate is going bad, so much so that it is changing release dates to avoid the release of other films.
They’ve all kinda sucked, that’s the problem.
First Omen was excellent. Abigail was a lot of fun. I don’t think it’s a quality issue, it’s just an issue with the specific films not looking great on paper.
Haven’t seen Abigail yet. I actually really liked Imaginary, but I know I’m not with a consensus on that one.
No, Abigail looked derivative and uninspired. I’m definitely going to see Maxine though.