This certainly has not been a good year for fans of Rated R horror. After “Scream 4” grossed just $39 million in April (to put that into perspective, many box office analysts that it would make that much opening weekend), “Final Destination 5” opened last weekend to just $18 million (roughly $9 million less than FD4), and now “Fright Night” has become the latest victim. “Fright Night” opened this weekend to just $7.9 million on a budget of $18 million. You can just see the eager journalists coming up with a great headline. “Fright Night” fails to make a bite at the box office” “Fright Night” sucks life out of box office”, etc. The general public reaction seems to be “who cares?”. With three strong Rated R horror films bombing in the last months, where is horror going to go in the future? If it’s PG-13 and supernatural, I give up right now. Where do you think horror is headed in the future? Why do you think the latest crop of horror movies bombed at the box office? Leave your comments
Very true, Darren. I think FD5 partially bombed because TFD left such a bad taste in the mouth of moviegoers. I definitely agree that Hollywood needs to find a new niche when it comes to horror. Something tells me that both Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Shark Night 3D won’t do anything to help the poor box office numbers. It might be the death of Rated R horror for a while, especially considering how well “insidious” did.
These movies are bombing because people have already seen these stories. Scream 4 might as well have been a remake, FD5 is full of great death scenes but no plot and Fright Night is a remake that shouldnt have been made. Hopefully, hollywood will great their act together and start finding original horror scripts instead of making lame ass sequels and remakes.