On April 21, the horror classic sequel "Ghost Player Rise" was released worldwide.
Among them, the North American premiere of "The Rise of the Ghost Player" exceeded 20 million US dollars, quickly covering the film's low investment budget, continuing this series with a small and broad victory.
More than 40 years after its debut in the first film, "Ghost Playman" has become a golden signature in the horror genre, and has also spawned related products such as American dramas, comics and games, and is expected to spawn more new film and television works in the future.
The box office overtook the cost in the first week
According to The-Numbers, "Ghost Man Rising" earned $2.5 million at zero point, better than last year's similar dark horse "Dangerous Laughter" ($2 million). Subsequently, "Ghost Man Rises" was rolled out to 3,402 theaters in North America, earning a total of $24.5 million in the first weekend, and the revenue per museum reached $7,202, beating another new film "The Covenant" to occupy the second place on the list.
Inside the series, this result is about $1.27 million different from the 2013 remake of "Ghost Player" ($25.78 million), which is only one step away from rewriting the opening record. Among the R-rated horror films unveiled this year, "Ghost Man Rises" is also enough to rank second, only lower than "Scream 6" (44.45 million US dollars) in March, far ahead of "The Pope's Exorcist" (9.01 million US dollars).
From the perspective of word of mouth, the freshness of "Ghost Man Rising" on Rotten Tomatoes reached 84%, and the mainstream media praised the film for using various "fashionable" elements to move the series forward while meeting the expectations of long-term fans; The popcorn index, which characterizes audience preference, is 80%, which is more in line with the 7.3 score (16,000 reviews) on IMDb. If the closing result of the remake (54.24 million US dollars) is used as a reference, "Ghost Man Rises" can be expected to challenge for 50 million US dollars.
Directed by Lee Cronin, Sam Raimi is executive producer, and the cast includes new faces such as Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland. The film shifts the story scene from the original forest to the city, depicting a pair of estranged sisters who are forced to fight a brutal life and death battle against the evil spirits possessing the flesh after reunion, but also have to face a nightmare family member.
Squeezed by "The Rise of the Ghost Player", "The Covenant" directed by Guy Ritchie received $6.38 million in 2,611 theaters, which is only 1/3 of the former in terms of revenue per museum; Although more than double the amount of Operation Golden Burst ($3.14 million) at the beginning of last month, it still falls short of Guy Ritchie's usual opening result of tens of millions of dollars, and the outlook is not optimistic in a highly competitive market.
In terms of old films, "Super Mario Brothers Movie" maintained a phenomenal endurance performance, falling 35% to $59.93 million in the third week, completing the box office list three times in a row without suspense, and the cumulative figure in North America reached $436 million, and will hit the goal of $550 million in the future.
The previous week's release of "The Pope's Exorcist", "Rainfield" and "Lingya's Journey" all fell by about 60%, but the A24 new work "Bo is Afraid" expanded from 4 theaters to 965, and the estimated harvest over the weekend soared nearly 8 times month-on-month, thus rising to the top 10 single-film films.
With the combined force of "Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Ghost Man Rise", the North American weekend market remained above $100 million, the ninth time this year. As of the 23rd, the total monthly box office in North America has recorded 762 million US dollars, far exceeding the 571 million US dollars in the whole month of last year,
With one full weekend left, April is expected to finally approach the $900 million mark, the third-highest result in history, behind 2018 and 2019, which exceeded the 1 billion line in a row, when two "Avengers" sat the end of April.
According to Comscore, "Ghost Man Rises" landed in 59 countries and regions and earned more than $40 million globally in its first week, including Mexico ($1.9 million), the United Kingdom ($1.8 million), Brazil ($1.5 million), France ($1.3 million), India ($1.3 million) and Italy ($1.03 million), and will soon enter the big screens in Germany and Indonesia.
Considering the low cost of $19 million, "Ghost Man Rises" can smoothly return investment at the theater end and continue to write the victory of this horror series.
Serialization continues to be popular
More than 40 years after the release of the first film, "The Rise of the Ghost Player" immediately exceeded 10 million US dollars, confirming the appeal of this series across generations.
In 1981, the fledgling Sam Raimi became a blockbuster with "Ghost Player" and quickly became a cult masterpiece in the eyes of horror film fans. After the premiere in Remy's hometown of Detroit, "Ghost Player" was initially rejected by mainstream distributors in the United States, but the following year it participated in the Cannes Film Festival and was favored by European filmmakers, and in January 1983 it was the first to enter British theaters, and after the release of the videotape, it topped the best-selling list.
It was not until April of that year that "Ghost Player" returned to China from across the ocean, and was operated by the new line on the North American big screen, eventually accumulating 2.4 million US dollars, and the global box office reached 29.4 million US dollars, equivalent to 78.4 times the production cost.
However, "Ghost Playman" also set off a rather huge "culture war". According to the BBC, even after it was released in the UK after it was rated X and cut 49 seconds, the VHS version of "Ghost Player" still came under fire from conservatives, not only putting video tape publisher Palace Pictures in the dock, but also leading to the introduction of a tighter new Video Code. " Ghost Man " later applied for VHS re-rating but was rejected , and remained on the market until 1990. After more than 10 years of tug-of-war, Ghost Man was finally approved to release the full version at level 18 in 2001.
In addition to the United Kingdom, "Ghost Player" was also banned in Finland and West Germany at that time, and was once snubbed by Hollywood manufacturers, and finally directly rated NC-17 (not suitable for children under 17).
After the success of "Ghost Player", Sam Raimi struck while the iron was hot to direct two sequels, namely "Ghost Man 2" in 1987 and "Ghost Player 3: Heroes of the Demon World" in 1993. But from the box office, these two films are difficult to reach the height of their predecessors, coupled with Sam Raimi's gradual turn to commercial blockbusters, "Ghost Playman" has faded from the public eye for a period of time.
In 2013, the remake of "Ghost Player", directed by Feder Alvarez and produced by Sam Raimi, was released, with a shooting budget of $17 million in exchange for $99.01 million, once again demonstrating the timeless appeal of this series. In addition, "Ghost Playman" also expanded its front to the small screen, producing three seasons of American dramas between 2015 and 2018, and received positive reviews from fans.
"Ghost Man 2" and "Ghost Man 3: Heroes of the Demon World"
With "Ghost Man Rising" once again reaping box office successes, the future trends of this series are also quite eye-catching. According to Bruce Campbell, producer of "Ghost Man Rise" and also the star of the original trilogy, Sam Raimi and his brother Ivan are writing a Bible-like general synopsis for future screenwriters or directors to create on it, so as to better form a series and echo between stories.
Campbell also said that the new title of "Ghost Player" will likely be released at a frequency of two to three years, rather than a 10-year gap like "Ghost Man Rises".
It is worth mentioning that "Ghost Man Rising" was once planned to be launched directly on HBO Max, until last year Warner Bros. decided to put it in theaters. In fact, including the previous "Stealing Party" and "Magic Mike 3: The Last Dance", this is the third time this year that Warner Bros. has transferred a movie that was originally directly for streaming to the big screen.
At present, the combined box office of these three has approached 60 million US dollars, which is enough to cover the cost of their respective publicity. Coupled with Paramount's case of earning excess revenue on "Dangerous Laughter" last year, Hollywood's trend of moving film projects from online to offline continues.
"Stealing Party" and "Magic Mike 3: The Last Dance"
This is also reflected in the change in the number of films released by producers. In the first quarter, a total of 185 films were screened in North America, an increase of nearly 40% from 134 in the same period last year. Entering April, more than 100 films appeared in the first three weeks alone, up from 96 in the whole month of 2022.
Ample supply of new films also contributed to overall market conditions: the North American weekend market has remained above $90 million since mid-February, the first since spring 2019. According to The-Numbers' estimates, the proportion of audiences returning to North American theaters has reached about 90% in 2019 or before, and these three indicators are showing an upward spiral that promotes each other.
The premiere of "The Rise of the Ghost Player" exceeded industry expectations, effectively attracting audiences outside the radiation circle of "Super Mario Bros. Movie", and also reflected the unique advantages of the big screen in enhancing brand influence, which is expected to catalyze the practice of online transfer of more small and medium-cost films.
Text|Chen Yong
Editor|Zhang Youfa