The Paper's reporter Cheng Xiaojun
Two new films were fully released in North American theaters last weekend, "Halloween Kills" from horror film pro Blumhouse and "The Last Duel, a new costume film by big director Ledley Scott." The two works have different types, different costs, different distribution models, and the results are far from each other.
"Moonlight Panic: Killing" entered theaters before Halloween on October 31, and earned $50.4 million at the box office. Compared with the $76 million box office of the previous "Moonlight Panic" when it was released in 2018, although there is a slight regression, it is quite good at the moment when the epidemic is not over. After all, the North American premiere of 007: No Time to Die, which was released a week earlier, was only a few million dollars higher than it. This also proves once again that in the post-epidemic era, horror films that focus on the young people's market are the most secure box office elixirs.
Moonlight Panic: Killing poster
"Moonlight Panic: Killing" is the twelfth work in the "Moonlight Panic" series, the plot directly continues the 2018 one, and the team in front of and behind the curtain remains basically unchanged. Like Blumhouse Pictures' previous productions, the film took a low-budget route with a production budget of only $20 million, so Universal Pictures, which is responsible for the distribution of the film, also boldly launched the film on the same day on its streaming platform Peacock. The intention is fairly clear: younger audiences willing to go to the theater to experience the thrill of watching horror movies with a large audience are welcome to come to the theater; as for those who are worried about the epidemic or are used to watching new movies at home, you are also welcome to watch online for free at zero-time difference, provided that you become a subscriber to the Peacock client in advance. The $50.4 million opening weekend box office shows that there are clearly still a large number of young American audiences who are willing to gather in the theater to see works that suit their appetites, regardless of any potential health risks.
Poster of The Last Duel
Relatively speaking, another new film, "The Last Duel", although it chose a pure theater distribution model, but released in 3065 theaters, it only got a small box office of 4.8 million US dollars, ranking fifth in the weekend box office list, lagging behind films such as "007: No Time to Die" and "Venom 2".
The Last Duel brings together Hollywood stars such as Judy Comer, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Adam Dreifer, and the story revolves around a duel over "Friends and Wives Don't Be Bullied.". Distributed by Disney, the film was a project that Twentieth Century Fox had begun to develop before it was acquired by it, and the production budget was said to be at least $100 million, and the loss was a foregone conclusion.
"The Last Duel" was rated 86% by professional critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
In fact, "The Last Duel" is currently rated 86% by professional critics on the film critics' collection website Rotten Tomatoes; it was also recognized by film critics when it was released worldwide at the Venice Film Festival; and the long-time friends of the lead actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck also worked hard to promote the film before the release. But perhaps because of the relationship between the story theme and the overall style biased towards the tastes of middle-aged and elderly audiences, it is difficult to attract a large number of audiences into the theater in the epidemic era.
As a result, the box office of "Moonlight Panic: Killing" and "The Last Duel" have formed a huge contrast, which clearly reflects the general trend of Hollywood filmmaking in the epidemic era. What kind of film can ensure commercial returns, and what kind of film is most likely to become a box office poison, can be seen in the opposite fates of these two films. In the near future, whether the epidemic will subside completely, and whether the film market will return to the so-called old normal, the film companies with a lot of money will certainly learn from the comparison between "Moonlight Panic: Killing" and "The Last Duel".
In fact, the high box office returns of low-budget horror films have proven to be the industry's gold rule in the past three or four years. And the literary and artistic commercial films such as "The Last Duel", which are blessed by famous directors and big stars, are like its original investor, Twentieth Century Fox, which is something that is becoming more and more rare in Hollywood, and the catalysis of the epidemic has accelerated the process of their withdrawal from the stage of history. In the coming years, it's hard to see Disney or any other studio spend another $100 million on another $100 million to make a work like The Last Duel, which has limited appeal to younger audiences (the first weekend poll found that 51% of U.S. and Canadian audiences who attended "The Last Duel" were over the age of 35).
The fifth poster of Screams
It's Halloween again, and the business prospects for horror movies are great, so even the classic horror series "Scream", which was extremely popular for a while more than two decades ago, also announced the trailer for the fifth part of the series last week, including Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette, all returning, making many nostalgic viewers look forward to the film scheduled to be released on January 14 next year. In terms of directors, wes Clevin, the horror film title director who directed the first four episodes of "Screams", passed away in 2015, and the new sequel was directed by Matt Betinelli-Olpin, the director of "Are You Ready". Olpin has said that he has great respect for Wes Clevin, and in fact he has embarked on the path of horror film director in large part because of the works he saw as a teenager.
The first "Scream" was released in the distant 1996, with a variety of surprising link settings that seemed very innovative at the time, it successfully attracted a large number of young audiences, and even the grimace mask that appeared in the film became a popular cultural symbol of the time, and it is still popular today.
The box office success of Scream also led to a so-called slasher movie craze, giving birth to many follow-up works, including three sequels to Scream. Today, it has been a decade since the release of the fourth "Scream", but seeing the good development momentum of low-cost horror films, Paramount's idea of picking up this IP to redevelop is actually completely expected.
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe