Pic revives horror for Sony, beats ‘Indiana Jones’ – Deadline

When it comes to horror movies at the box office, Sony revived its record last weekend with the opening of Blumhouse/Stage 6 Films’ fifth film. Secret: The Red Door which had one 32.65 million dollars internal opening, 64 million dollars Worldwide debut.

On the domestic front, this is Sony’s second best horror opening since 2004 Insult which debuted to $39.1 million. It is also the second best domestic debut for a single Secretly movie after Chapter 2opening of $40.2 million. Even more amazing, this 13-year-old horror franchise stole the thunder at no. 1 of the ongoing Disney/Lucasfilm legacy Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny which earned just $26.5 million in its second weekend.

While Sony before the pandemic had horror sleep such as Don’t Breathe AND Escape Room, part of Culver City wasn’t reaping the riches of the post-Covid genre like Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros. Now, Sony has posted a US/Canada version with a PG-13 rating The Red Door surpassing the debuts of several horror pictures after 2020, some of them R-rated, including scream ($30 million), M3GAN ($30.4 million), Smile ($22.6 million) and Dead evil rises ($24.5 million). For Blumhouse, The Red Door it’s her 16th title to open at No. 1.

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group originally bought the North American rights at the start Secretly (which was made for a reported $900K) from TIFF Midnight Madness in 2010 as Deadline first reported. Despite the financial commitment at the time, the studio did not trust the picture enough to handle US/Canada theatrical releases. So they ended up doing a distribution deal with Film District to release the state. Film District handled the first two pictures until the distributor was absorbed by Universal’s Focus Features. Sony had foreigners (except UK and Spain) inside Secret 2 AND 3. asset Insidious: The Last Key, Sony acquired all foreign rights, plus full ownership of the IP, also with Universal handling the title. The last key was huge by low-budget standards at the BO with an opening of $29.5m, $67.7m domestic and $167m-plus global. BY The Red DoorSony realized it needed to make a complete comeback insidious, So they acquired all global rights and co-financed most of the picture’s reported $16 million production cost.

James Wan, who directed the first two films, came up with the idea for it The Red Door to Blumhouse in 2018 to keep the franchise alive with another string that includes the Lamberts’ son Dalton, who starred in Undercover 1, 2, AND 4. The idea was to reunite all the original cast, including Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Simpkins, Secretly architect Leigh Whannell and Lin Shaye. Wilson was able to pull off that feat and assemble the cast, with Aquaman the actor making his directorial debut here.

Sony committed passionately to the film: Chairman and CEO of the Film Group, Tom Rothman, cheekily chose the date of the daring theatrical release in the middle Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and ahead of Tom Cruise’s expected summer box office hit, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning on July 12. It takes cajones for a studio to pursue a major Disney film, ala Marvel or Lucasfilm. Meanwhile, I hear that Sony co-president Josh Greenstein was confident that the studio could take the fifth installment to a big opening. However, Sony and Blumhouse’s previous track record was not so bright: Fantasy Island a month before Pandemic opened to $12.3 million and exploded to $27.3 million domestically, while handicraft the reboot was a victim of the pandemic and was released across the board. This time, the creative partnership between Blumhouse and Sony was significantly improved and closer.

However, the first cut of The Red Door it looked lackluster and had to be threatened with the filmmakers seeking to delay the release. For Blumhouse, Secretly was a vital franchise that grossed over $542 million WW; was one of their cornerstones along with Paranormal activity, evil AND Cleaning that they built their model and reputation on low-budget films, where the director and actors reap the benefits after the theater. They couldn’t fail here with a fan favorite sequel. Rothman remained committed to the theater date. When it comes to making a movie work at the box office, more than the stars, it’s the release date. Secretly writer Leigh Whannell got under the hood and worked with Wilson in Atlanta, GA to make The Red Door scary razor blade.

Then came marketing under Greenstein. Every great theatrical horror movie needs a gimmick to send shock waves (ie those crazy people who smile at sporting events for smile, Dance tour for girls android for M3GAN and the cute girl who turns into a monster on Chatroulette for the 2010s The Last Exorcism).

Sony had What’s behind the red joke. Their team created several outdoor and digital stunts using a location in Hollywood where they scared people and tourists on the street by luring them to the red door. At that moment they are met by the infamous lipstick demon. Sony enlisted the support of social media influencers Brent Rivera and Ben Azelart. The creators shot their custom prank videos on location in Hollywood and posted them to their 90 million followers on TikTok and Instagram.