Blumhouse's Imaginary Friend Horror Film Hopes To Scare Up A Big Audience
02 -03-2024
Blumhouse has become the premier destination in Hollywood for horror. They have a knack for hitting the mark with their films, whether they are reviving old classics or creating new ones. Even their failures are not disastrous because they keep the budgets down. This brings us to the Blumhouse film "Imaginary", which is definitely aiming to be their next franchise. This is not the same as "IF", the family-friendly movie about imaginary friends starring Ryan Reynolds. Can this teddy-bear horror flick be a hit at the box office, or will it fall flat? Will this film be more of a middling success?
Lionsgate handles this film, directed by Jeff Wadlow (Truth or Dare). Box Office Pro estimates that the movie will bring in between $8 to $15 million when it debuts next weekend. This is a wide range, and many factors can influence where it ends up. All of these factors will have an effect, from reviews, to word-of-mouth, and most importantly how the competition does. Even on the lower end of that scale, it would be sufficient to describe this as a modest victory for a film with a production budget of $13 millions
The animated sequel will open directly opposite Universal's "Kung Fu Panda 4" and is expected to earn at least $30,000,000, if it doesn't go much higher. Wadlow’s new film will likely have to settle on third place, as "Dune: Part Two", which is also in its second week, will be playing in the same weekend. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Horror can be a great counterprogramming to other studio movies.
Lionsgate can win with Imaginary.
Jessica (DeWanda WIse) and her family move back to the childhood home of Jessica's mother. Alice, the young daughter of Jessica (DeWanda Wise), develops an odd attachment to Chauncey, a stuffed animal. Alice starts to play with Chauncey and this leads her to an evil place. Tom Payne and Taegen burns star in the film.
Lionsgate is a great studio when working on low to mid-budget films, and this one is no exception. Even if the movie makes only a fraction of Blumhouse’s “Night Swim” ($51 million globally), this should still be a success. Even after VOD, and all other revenue streams have been taken into account, the movie would be a success. It wouldn't be the next M3GAN (the baby-sitting robotic film that made $181 million in the past year, and paved way for the sequel "M3GAN 1.0") but it's not the only record-breaker. A modest success can be enough to get the job done.
The fact that there are no more studio horror films coming out in the next few weeks is a plus for this film. The next movie is "Immaculate" by director Michael Mohan, starring Sydney Sweeney. It won't be released until March 22, 2019. For horror lovers, the scary bear Chauncey is going to be their only option for several weeks.
The movie "Imaginary", which is set to be released on 8 March 2024, will hit theaters.