The new entry in the haunted house series from James Wan starts with an opening that nearly matches the legacy action icon.
The mega-budget movie bubble is seeing some imploding this year, with summer tentpoles sporting highly recognizable IP names taking some blows at the box office. Meanwhile, mid-budget movies that seem like riskier ventures are enjoying modest success. One film that straddles the line is the fifth entry in the popular Insidious series. Insidious: The Red Door continue the scares and capitalizes on a loyal audience fanbase looking for good old-fashioned horror fun.
Deadline is reporting that the Thursday preview numbers for Insidious: The Red Door is doing such good business that it nearly locked out Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the box office last night. The James Wan-produced horror sequel is helmed by the film’s star Patrick Wilson and boasts an epic conclusion to the story. Insidious: The Red Door was able to conjure up $5 million from early previews that screened at 2,806 locations starting at 4 pm in the afternoon. The horror film came close to grossing the same amount that Harrison Ford’s swan song raised for the day, which came out to $5.2 million. The week for Indy would top out at $94.5 million.
As reliably successful as the Insidious films are, the franchise never truly garnered critical praise. Critical ratings on Rottentomatoes came out to 45% rotten, while the audience score scored 72%. The original film received the highest rating with a 66% fresh while the last entry, 2018’s Insidious: The Last Key would come in at 33%. Even though Dial of Destiny has the benefit of premium screen showings with IMAX and the like, it’s expected to ease around -60% per industry estimates. Insidious: The Red Door is tracking for $22 million overall for the weekend.
The post-July 4th movie-going attendance is predicted to shoot up with the upcoming action spectacular, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Onestarring Tom Cruise in his latest daredevil efforts, coming out on July 12. Meanwhile, after Jennifer Lawrence’s No Hard Feelingsanother raunchy comedy romp, Lionsgate’s JoyRide also held previews last night and Wednesday at 6PM which brought in an estimated $1.1M. The R-rated comedy from Seth Rogan, and directed by Adele Lim, is looking at $7M-$9M at 2,820 locations.