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It was, all things considered, a rough weekend at the box office. A pair of major Hollywood franchise films hit theaters in the form of Sony’s Kraven the Hunter, which is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, as well as Warner Bros.’ The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an anime based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Both films bombed, taking in an estimated $11 million and $4.6 million, respectively, in their openings. Not great, to put it lightly. But, somewhat quietly, there was some good news.
Heretic, the latest from filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, crossed a not-insignificant milestone. While it landed all the way at number 20 on the charts over the weekend with a $108,000 sixth weekend haul, that, along with international grosses, was enough to bring its global total to $43.4 million. That number is key, as it means the film has overtaken last year’s Oscar-nominee Past Lives ($42.9 million) to become one of A24’s ten biggest movies ever.
Everything Everywhere All at Once ($111 million) remains A24’s biggest movie, followed by this year’s Civil War ($106.5 million). Other horror titles in the top ten include Talk to Me ($92.1 million) at number three and Hereditary ($80.9 million) at number four.
Beck and Woods’ latest, which stars Hugh Grant as a religious skeptic of sorts who ends up putting some unsuspecting missionaries through hell, opened in early November. Thanks to relatively weak competition in the horror space, it has held well. It even held its own against the likes of Red One and Wicked, relatively speaking. Last weekend, four horror movies including A24’s own Y2K, the indie Werewolves, Amy Adams’ Nightbitch and IFC’s Get Away all bombed in their respective debuts. That only served to help Heretic’s case.
Speaking of Y2K, after a brutal $2.1 million opening last weekend, the horror/comedy fell completely out of the top ten in its second weekend with a mere $685,000 second weekend haul. This one will be on VOD in no time and will rank as a major disappointment for the studio. Y2K was met with a pretty mixed response from critics, for what it’s worth.
There was little else in horror holdover news to speak of as Searchlight isn’t even reporting grosses for Nightbitch. Meanwhile, Werewolves and Get Away didn’t make enough over the weekend to even register on the charts, sad to say. I say this as someone who saw both films and enjoyed what they had to offer. I would encourage viewers to seek them out on streaming when the time comes. Get Away will be on Shudder sometime early next year. Werewolves should be on VOD soon.
Looking ahead, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Mufasa: The Lion King will dominate the pre-Christmas weekend. Then, on Christmas Day, one of the biggest horror movies of the year arrives in the form of Robert Eggers’ long-awaited new take on Nosferatu. The early buzz on this one has been quite strong and hopefully it can carve out some space for itself amongst a great deal of competition. But since we haven’t had a big studio horror movie taking up any oxygen for weeks now, audiences will be ready.
You can check out the full list of the top ten movies at the box office for the weekend of December 13, 2024, below. For more, check out Fango’s review of Nosferatu right here.
- Moana 2 – $26.6 million (third weekend)
- Wicked – $22.5 million (fourth weekend)
- Kraven the Hunter – $11 million (first weekend)
- Gladiator II – $7.8 million (fourth weekend)
- The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim – $4.6 million (first weekend)
- Red One – $4.4 million (fifth weekend)
- Pushpa: The Rule – Part 2 – $3.7 million (second weekend)
- Interstellar (Re-Release) – $3.3 million (second weekend)
- Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem – $2.3 million (first weekend)
- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – $1.3 million (sixth weekend)
