This year has been full of horror movies, but not all of them are doing well. Two films that came out in September, Him and The Strangers: Chapter 2, have struggled to attract viewers. They were both released just a week apart. Even though big studios were behind them, their theater runs have shrunk. Now, both movies are showing in fewer than 300 theaters across the United States.
Him, from Universal, was promoted a lot before it came out. People were talking about it, but the excitement faded fast once it hit cinemas. The film released on September 19. It earned only $27.5 million worldwide, which is just barely above its $27 million budget. In the U.S., it made $24.9 million. Overseas, it barely made $2.6 million. The numbers dropped sharply after the first weekend. The second weekend saw a 73% fall, and the third weekend fell another 64%. By the fourth weekend, it was earning less than half a million dollars. On average, each theater made only $29 from the film recently. The movie needed about $67.5 million to break even but is nearly $40 million short, losing roughly 59% of what it cost to make.
The Strangers: Chapter 2, from Lionsgate, had a smaller budget of $8 million. People expected it to do better because it is part of a known franchise, but that didn’t help much. It came out on September 26 and has made $17.7 million worldwide. In the U.S., it earned $14.9 million, and internationally it added $2.8 million. Its opening weekend brought in about $6 million. The drops each weekend were not as steep as Him’s, but the earnings were still too low to meet expectations. The movie needed around $22 million to break even. It might recover some of the loss through streaming or digital sales, but it still faced around a 20% loss from what was expected.
