The Exorcist: Believer pulls in $2.85 million from Thursday previews

There’s a new Exorcist movie in theatres now. The Exorcist: Believer (read our review HERE) is tracking to have the highest opening weekend of the entire franchise and might end up pulling in an amount somewhere in the range of 30 to 36 million. Its theatrical run got started last night, and according to The Hollywood Reporter it drew in $2.85 million from those Thursday preview screenings.

Most of the film’s reviews are negative – it currently has a 20% score on Rotten Tomatoes and JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray described it as “abysmal” – so we’ll have to wait and see if that’s going to have any impact on the opening weekend box office.

Director David Gordon Green crafted the story for The Exorcist: Believer with Danny McBride (who wrote all three of the new Halloweens with him) and their Halloween Kills co-writer Scott Teems, then wrote the screenplay with Peter Sattler (Broken Diamonds). Here’s the synopsis: Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding has raised their daughter on his own. But when Angela and her friend Katherine, disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.

Ellen Burstyn reprises the role of Chris MacNeil, the character she played in the 1973 classic The Exorcist, “an actress who has been forever altered by what happened to her daughter Regan five decades before.” An interview with Burstyn is included in the new featurette. She is joined in the cast by Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) as Victor, Lidya Jewett (Nightbooks) as Angela, and newcomer Olivia O’Neill as Angela’s friend Katherine. Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale) plays Victor and Angela’s neighbor, and Jennifer Nettles (The Righteous Gemstones) and Norbert Leo Butz (Fosse/Verdon) play Katherine’s parents. Original The Exorcist star Linda Blair is in there as well, reprising the role of Chris MacNeil’s daughter Regan.

Okwui Okpokwasili (Master) is also in the cast as Doctor Beehibe, and Raphael Sbarge (Carnosaur) plays a pastor.

The Exorcist: Believer was produced by Jason Blum, David Robinson, and James Robinson. Green, McBride, Stephanie Allain, and Couper Samuelson serve as executive producers. Ryan Turek oversaw the project for Blumhouse.

This movie is meant to be the first entry in a new trilogy of Exorcist sequels, and Universal Pictures and Peacock forked over an amount somewhere in the range of $400 million to acquire the rights to distribute this trilogy. Universal has already announced a release date for the second entry; The Exorcist: Deceiver will be reaching theatres on April 18, 2025.

Did you check out The Exorcist: Believer during its Thursday previews? Will you be contributing to the opening weekend haul? Let us know by leaving a comment below.