So many of you know by now that THE DEVIL’S REJECTS didn’t exactly burn up the box office this weekend. In fact many are pointing to its $7 million bow as evidence that the genre has lost steam.
In fact you can read all about that theory in The Hollywood Reporter today. The basic point of the article is that horror is not meant to compete with summer tentpole releases. They’re right.
It’s a more complex issue than that, however. People will point to LAND OF THE DEAD and THE DEVIL’S REJECTS and talk about a disappointing opening weekend, while failing to recognize that a movie that makes back 75% to 100% of it’s budget on opening weekend is a guaranteed profit maker for the studio. These were adult genre films that did not cast a wide PG-13 net. And they were budgeted accordingly.
Sure some horror movies hit a vein and end up making blockbuster profit, but perception can get so freaking skewed in Hollywood. Let’s not allow one of our beloved genre picks to become viewed as a failure when it hits its core audience and makes money!
Yes there is a lot of crap that has come out of the genre lately and those films have often met the fate they deserve (though sometimes inexplicably not – yeah WHITE NOISE I’m talking to you). But don’t let articles and hype about the death of the genre get you to buy into a simple case of misguided expectations.
Horror is doing just fine.