Universal Pictures’ 2017 remake of The Mummy was supposed to kickstart a new “Dark Universe” around Tom Cruise and his never-to-be-revealed Van Helsing role. The film wasn’t exactly a huge bust, managing $400M worldwide on a reported $125M budget. But numbers can be deceiving, and much of that came overseas, which isn’t comforting considering it barely crossed $80M here in the States. Universal put the breaks on the Dark Universe, but instead of just pulling the plug, decided to rework their strategy and set the “franchise” up for success. Bloody Disgusting has celebrated this move emphatically.
The first of their solo efforts is the Leigh Whannell (Upgrade) written and directed The Invisible Man (read our review), a modern spin on the famed Universal Monster in which Elisabeth Moss plays a woman haunted by her abusive ex-boyfriend.
Blumhouse is behind this new version, which means a modest reported budget of $7M-$10M, a far cry from the ballooned $125M of The Mummy. With that, The Invisible Man only needed give or take $30M worth of ticket sales to appear in order to be considered a success. While it took the entire life of The Mummy to barely recoup, The Invisible Man is already a hit having pulled in $49M globally in its first weekend of release ($29M U.S. and $20M internationally). The film will eventually cross $100M with the sky being the limit.
This is such a huge deal because, while The Mummy was set up for failure, The Invisible Man was set up for success. There is no world in which Universal didn’t just throw the keys at Blumhouse and allow them to unlock any Universal Monster they want. Instead of getting one big movie, it’s more than likely we’ll be getting several smaller versions of classic characters from Wolfman to Dracula. Who knows what’s next for Blumhouse, but with a two-year deal locked and loaded for Whannell, let’s hope he continues to be part of it.
Which Universal Monster would you next like to see on the big screen?
The Boo Crew Discuss Tension and Dread with Horror Master Writer, Director, and Actor Leigh Whannell! @LWhannell @BDisgusting #horror #TheInvisibleMan Listen on @ApplePodcasts @Spotify Episode links here: https://t.co/MF7OBfGWaz pic.twitter.com/7gM7cVQxMl
— The Boo Crew (@talesfromtheboo) February 29, 2020
