Afraidis set to earn one of Blumhouse’s worst wide release opening weekends in many years. The 2024 horror movie, which followsa family who beta tests a new AI assistant whose desire to help them turns deadly, was written and directed by Chris Weitz and stars John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Havana Rose Liu, and David Dastmalchian. TheAfraidmoviedebuted the same weekend as a variety of new releases, including the political biopicReagan, the L.A. riots thriller1992, and the human trafficking dramaCity of Dreams.
PerVariety, as of Sunday morning,Afraidis projected to debut with a 3-day domestic opening weekend of $3.7 million and a 4-day Labor Day holiday weekend gross of $4.4 million. The movie, which comes with a $12 million price tag, landed at No. 9 on the chart for the weekend, just ahead of weekend 3 of the 15th anniversary re-release ofCoraline. That 3-day total isBlumhouse’s worst debut for a movie that opened in more than 2,000 theaters sinceJem and the Hologramsmade $1.4 million in 2015, not counting the pandemic-era release ofFreakyin November 2020.
Afraid Continues Blumhouse’s Disappointing 2024
2024 Has Been Tough After A Banner Year For The Company
This disappointing debut forAfraidcontinues a general critical and commercial slump for Blumhouse after 2023 was more or less a banner year for the company. Although their franchise outingThe Exorcist: Believerdrastically underperformed, necessitating a creative overhaul for the planned sequel, theyscored major commercial hits withM3GAN,Insidious: The Red Door, andFive Nights at Freddy’s.M3GANwas well-received critically as well, earning a Certified Fresh Tomatometer score of 93% and an audience score of 78% on what has now been dubbed the Popcornmeter.
M3GAN Budget & How Much Profit It Made At The Box Office
M3gan had a pretty small budget for a horror film but made a significant profit at the box office, proving that the low cost of production paid off.
While Blumhouse’s 2024 moviesNight SwimandImaginaryhave both been commercial successes based on their budgets,neither has been a runaway hit at the level of the company’s 2023 success stories, and both were roundly rejected by critics, earning 20% and 24% scores respectively.Afraid’s 21% score and disappointing debut add two additional levels of disappointment to the year’sBlumhouse movies. While it remains to be seen if the upcoming James McAvoy movieSpeak No Evilcan reverse this trend, it may likewise turn out to be modest success at the level of the earlier titles.
Speak No Evilis an English-language remake of the 2022 Danish movie of the same name.
It doesn’t seem that Blumhouse will shake off the doldrums that it is sinking further into withAfraiduntil 2025 and beyond. It seems likely that more critical and commercial successes are indeed on the way, as the company has several prominent projects on the way, includingThe Wolf Man, fromThe Invisible Mandirector Leigh Whannell. Also on the docket are promising franchise titlesM3GAN 2.0,The Black Phone 2,Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, and an untitledInsidiousmovie.
Key Background
Why Afraid’s Box Office Opening Was So Low
There are a few reasons whyAfraidearned Blumhouse one of its lowest box office openings in nine years. As previously mentioned,the2024 horror moviewas hit with a wave of bad reviewsjust a day before its theatrical release on August 30. Overall, critics describedAfraidas a disappointing and mediocre movie that struggles to balance its ambitious themes regarding artificial intelligence, with its attempts to address the issue often seen as superficial or misguided. Some critics note thatAfraideven feels like it was produced by AI itself, lacking genuine creativity and human touch.
ThoughAfraid’s underwhelming box office debut signifies a difficult time for Blumhouse, the studio should be able to regroup and recapture its success with several prominent projects on the way.
WhileAfraidfails as a sci-film, according to critics, it simultaneously fails as a horror movie, lacking any effective scares. Its plot has been described as predictable and not particularly thrilling, failing to generate the suspense or excitement one might expect from aBlumhouse horror movie, resulting in a dismal 21% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 28 reviews. Since reviews from critics generally have little effect on a movie’s performance at the box office, there are a few other reasons whyAfraiddrastically underperformed.
As previously mentioned,Afraidopened at the box office against some crowded competitioninReagan,1992,City of Dreams. It ended up being a slow weekend for these new releases, thoughReaganslightly overperformed expectations to finish fourth behind holdover hitsDeadpool & Wolverine,Alien: Romulus,andIt Ends with Us. Overall, it was one of the summer’s slower weekends at the box office, despite the four-day Labor Day holiday, andAfraidwas just one of three new releases that failed to make much of an impact.
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$136 million
93%
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$180 million
39%
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$189 million
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$291 million
In addition to negative reviews from critics,Afraidmay have also suffered from bad word of mouthamong audiences over its opening weekend. On Rotten Tomatoes, the horror movie has a 48% audience score, recently renamed the Popcornmeter, with 100+ verified ratings citing many of the same issues that critics had. ThoughAfraid’s underwhelming box office debut signifies a difficult time for Blumhouse, the studio should be able to regroup and recapture its success with several prominent projects on the way.
AfrAId
Cast
AfrAId is a psychological thriller series set in a secluded small town. Following the mysterious disappearance of a local teenager, Sheriff Gregson, played by Eric Dane, struggles to uncover the dark secrets lurking within his community. As fear and suspicion grow, the townspeople wrestle with their own hidden pasts, creating an atmosphere of pervasive dread. Co-starring Jennifer Carpenter and Ethan Embry, the series delves into the chilling consequences of buried truths.
