For the past few weeks, the film industry has been marveling at the box office performance of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which has shattered multiple records en route to a $2 billion worldwide haul. Still less than a month into its run, Brand New Day is projected to make even more history, perhaps becoming the highest-grossing film of all time domestically. One of the many reasons why Brand New Day is a commercial juggernaut is the fact it’s faced minimal competition throughout the month of August. It’s held on to the No. 1 position for three straight weekends, never facing much of a challenge from anything else playing. But now, Brand New Day has been knocked off its perch … at least for a brief moment.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, new horror film Insidious: Out of the Further grossed $10.6 million on its opening day, Friday, August 21st. That’s more than the $9.8 million Spider-Man: Brand New Day brought in on Friday. This is notable because for 21 straight days, Brand New Day was the top movie at the domestic box office, and Out of the Further ended that streak.
Though Brand New Day suffered its first loss on the daily charts, it’s still poised to win another weekend. Currently, the projections have it pegged for $36.5 million domestically, good enough to retain the No. 1 position for the fourth consecutive weekend. Assuming that holds, Brand New Day will be the first Marvel movie in four years to top the weekend box office for at least four straight weekends. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever led the way for five consecutive weekends back in 2022. By the end of the weekend, Brand New Day will be on the precipice of passing Avengers: Endgame on the all-time chart.
Insidious: Out of the Further might have had a better chance of snagging the weekend crown from Spider-Man if word of mouth was stronger. The horror film received generally positive reviews (60% score on Rotten Tomatoes), with one of the main critiques being that the franchise has succumbed to formula after so many entries. While it has some terrifying sequences, that isn’t enough to completely make up for any shortcomings, which probably hurt its box office prospects. Horror fans made a point to show up for Out of the Further, but the latest Insidious film didn’t fully break out because of the mixed reception. Unlike Brand New Day, which was hailed by critics and audiences alike as one of the strongest Marvel movies in years, Out of the Further lacked the “must-see” element.
The good news is that Insidious: Out of the Further didn’t need to break the bank in order to turn a profit. It was budgeted at just $18 million, and it will recoup those costs this weekend. That figure doesn’t include marketing and distribution expenses, but Out of the Further should be well on its way to profitability after this start. This is one of the main reasons why studios continue to greenlight horror movies. They’re inexpensive to make, meaning it doesn’t take much for the investment to get into the black. The highest-grossing Insidious movie is 2023’s Insidious: The Red Door ($16 million budget), which didn’t even top $200 million worldwide.
Horror movies have a tendency to be frontloaded, meaning they do most of their damage during their opening weekend and then have a steep drop off. That could be Out of the Further‘s fate given its reception, but it might have decent legs. There’s a bit of a gap between now and when Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil opens in mid-September, so Out of the Further could have a monopoly on the horror demographic for the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, we’ll have to see if something like The Dog Stars can do what Insidious couldn’t and knock Brand New Day from the No. 1 position for the weekend.
