While big-budget genre pictures have largely struggled to find their footing at the box office this summer, the horror genre has experienced rather unprecedented success. Indie darlings Obsession and Backrooms have proven to be two of the biggest draws of the season, bringing in $407.6 million and $361.8 million worldwide, respectively. Horror fans were treated to another new title to enjoy this weekend when Evil Dead Burn, the latest installment in the classic franchise, premiered. Originating in the ’80s, the property still has pull with viewers; 2023’s Evil Dead Rise is the highest-grossing entry (unadjusted for inflation) with $147.1 million globally. It looks like Evil Dead Burn may come in below that, but it’s still in good shape.
According to The Wrap, Evil Dead Burn is estimated to gross $14.5 million domestically in its opening weekend, after bringing in $6.5 million on its first day. This would be below the debuts for both Evil Dead and Evil Dead Rise, making Burn the lowest start for an Evil Dead movie since Army of Darkness in 1993. To see how Evil Dead Burn‘s projections match up with the rest of the franchise, check out the table below:
A recurring theme this summer has been new releases failing to live up to expectations, but Evil Dead Burn doesn’t fall under that umbrella. This isn’t a big-budget superhero movie; Evil Dead Burn cost just $20 million to make (not including marketing and distribution expenses), so it should be in excellent shape moving forward — especially when factoring in the international numbers from the overseas box office. Going by the general industry rule of thumb, Evil Dead Burn probably needs to earn around $50 million to break even. Evil Dead brought in $97.5 million worldwide back in 2013, so that figure is certainly attainable for the franchise.
Of course, nothing is guaranteed, so it will still be interesting to keep an eye on Evil Dead Burn‘s box office and see how well it holds. Horror movies have a tendency to be front loaded, meaning their opening weekends are fueled by genre fans excited to see the new release as soon as possible before business takes a hit. If Evil Dead Burn suffers a steep drop in its second weekend, then it could conceivably become more of a struggle for it to reach profitability. The odds of Evil Dead Burn losing money are low because of how inexpensive the film was, but the faint possibility still remains.
With high-profile films like The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day on the way this month, Evil Dead Burn is probably going to have a hard time crossing over and appealing to more general audiences (a la Obsession, which rode waves of positive word of mouth to become one of the unlikeliest box office success stories in history). However, it should have decent enough legs with its target demographic. Evil Dead Burn earned mostly positive reviews (72% score on Rotten Tomatoes) and had the recognizability of legendary IP. Horror fans on the hunt for something new to watch will likely continue to turn out. It’s also worth keeping in mind that there are no major new releases opening in the week between The Odyssey and Spider-Man, so holdovers could thrive there.
It’s good to see the Evil Dead franchise continue to be a draw. There aren’t any plans to slow things down; prequel film Evil Dead Wrath is already on the schedule for 2028. Assuming everything goes smoothly from here, Evil Dead Burn will illustrate why studios continue to be interested in horror movies after all these years. The budgets are so small, they don’t need to break box office records in order to turn a profit. In an age where genre tentpoles aren’t as reliable as they used to be, horror definitely has an appeal.
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