In his review of Terrifier 3, Bob Hoose warned readers that the movie “is grotesquely foul on every level and a torture all its own to simply watch for two hours. … I wouldn’t recommend that anyone even consider viewing this disgusting bucket of cinematic excrement.”
So, why did Plugged In even bother watching it? “In case someone brings the topic up around the watercooler,” Hoose continued.
Well, those watercoolers must have had some serious foot traffic—or maybe folks just didn’t have anything better to do with their time in a weekend with few other new film offerings—because Terrifier 3 took home roughly $18.3 million, landing it in the box office top spot.
Universal’s The Wild Robot kept its spot at No. 2, with an estimated $13.4 million. But Joker: Folie à Deux and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice both fell in the rankings, bringing home about $7 million each to come in at third and fourth place, respectively.
Piece by Piece, a documentary about the life of musical artist Pharrell Williams, as told through LEGO pieces, earned about $3.8 million to close out the top five.
Saturday Night, the story of Saturday Night Live’s tumultuous opening show, landed further down the list with roughly $3.4 million in earnings. My Hero Academia: You’re Next, yet another offering from popular anime series My Hero Academia, earned an estimated $3 million. And The Nightmare Before Christmas (in a special limited rerelease) filled Disney coffers with another $2.3 million.
Finally, Average Joe took home an estimated $1.1 million. This documentary-like dramatization chronicles the true story of Joe Kennedy and his fight against the Supreme Court to protect his right to pray on the football field after games.
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I’m thrilled to see that a film like Terrifier 3, made on a modest budget from a dedicated crew of people both behind and in front of the camera, has found the success that it has over the years. In an age where films are overstuffed with cheap looking poorly done CGI, Damien Leone and his crew push the limits of what can be achieved with practical effects while simultaneously going against the grain of general acceptability and taste for mainstream audiences. Absolutely it is not for kids, and certainly not for many adults either, and that’s okay, not everything has to be. I am excited to see how the story, one that is set up to be an ultimate showdown of good versus evil, will conclude in the fourth and final instalment.
Damien Leone, Phil Falcone, Lauren LaVera, Elliott Fullam, David Howard Thornton, and all the rest of the crew members that worked on these films deserve all of the success that comes their way. Whether or not you agree with or approve of their work is irrelevant. Terrifier 3 is a blessing for cinemas and a reminder that horror films are a very crucial output that help keep theatres open so that other kids and adults can continue making memories seeing movies on big screens like The Wild Robot and Average Joe- movies that in a dying entertainment economy, would fail to keep the lights on in the cinemas.
“My Hero Academia: You’re Next” performed significantly better in Japan, as one might guess. I was saddened to not see Transformers One mentioned here despite that being a stellar and remarkably thought-provoking film, but according to Box Office Mojo, that was #6 for the weekend, which is none too shabby.
Deadpool & Wolverine will likely come up just short of surpassing Inside Out 2 as the #1 domestic earner for 2024, somewhat poetic since Deadpool 1 came just short of surpassing The Passion’s R-rated domestic gross. I’m not worried about it having a slew of R-rated imitators since movies like Joker 2 and Furiosa show that making a success off of that kind of rating is easier said than done (even given that Joker 1 performed tremendously well, the same couldn’t be said for Fury Road as it was).
Speaking of The Passion, I doubt the next one will do as well as the first because of Mel Gibson’s controversies, see also how Mad Max has bent over backward to keep the story going without his involvement.