The latest release from producer Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, the football-themed horror movie HIM from director Justin Tipping released in theaters over the weekend, and the good news for Monkeypaw is that it opened in the #2 spot at the domestic box office.
The bad news? HIM scored just $13.8 million across its opening weekend, falling short of the roughly estimated $18-20 million opening weekend projections leading into the release.
For the sake of comparison, HIM opened higher than horror movies this year including slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer ($12.7 million), Stephen King’s The Long Walk ($11.7 million), monster movie Wolf Man ($10.8 million), and sequel M3GAN 2.0 ($10.2 million).
The reported production budget for HIM was $27 million, so it’s going to need to have legs in the coming weeks if Universal has any hope of it being profitable in theaters. Not helping matters is the fact that HIM has been poorly reviewed across the board, with the film’s critical Rotten Tomatoes score currently sitting at 29% Rotten. The user score is a little higher at 58%.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her review here on Bloody Disgusting, “Despite a stellar cast and a strong concept executed with vibrant style, HIM fumbles in integrating its visceral symbolism with horror and storytelling.” Meagan adds, “Beyond its slick technical polish and potent brutality, HIM isn’t nearly as complex as its tricky camera work and imagery portend.”
Universal Pictures is playing HIM in 3,168 theaters across the country. The #1 film at the U.S. box office over the weekend was Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie – Infinity Castle.
HIM stars Tyriq Withers as Cameron Cade, a rising-star quarterback who has devoted his life, and identity, to football. On the eve of professional football’s annual scouting Combine, Cam is attacked by an unhinged fan and suffers a potentially career-ending brain trauma.
Just when all seems lost, Cam receives a lifeline when his hero, Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), a legendary eight-time Championship quarterback and cultural megastar, offers to train Cam at Isaiah’s isolated compound that he shares with his celebrity wife, Elsie White (Julia Fox).
As Cam’s training accelerates, Isaiah’s charisma curdles into something darker, sending his protégé down a disorienting rabbit hole that may cost him more than he bargained for.
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