A Quiet Place Makes $52 Million in Debut, Horizon Fails

Everett Collection

“A Quiet Place: Day One” is making noise at the box office, raking in a whopping $53 million in its domestic opening weekend. It added $45.5 million internationally, for a global total of $98.5 million.

These ticket sales are particularly impressive because spinoff stories generally don’t bring in as much business as direct sequels. Still, “A Quiet Place: Day One” — a prequel story to Paramount’s post-apocalyptic horror series — landed the franchise’s biggest debut, surpassing 2018’s original “A Quiet Place” ($50 million). dollars to start) and the 2021 sequel, “A Quiet Place Part II” (a $48 million debut during COVID).

This debut is also notable because John Krasinski, who directed the first two films, and his wife Emily Blunt, who starred in them, did not return for this entry. Instead, Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn directed “A Quiet Place: Day One,” which is set at the start of an alien invasion of New York that ultimately forces the population into hiding from terrifying, hunting creatures of sounds. “Pig” filmmaker Michael Sarnoski took over from Krasinski, who contributed to the story, as director. Critics and audiences liked the film (it scored 84% on Rotten Tomatoes and B+ on CinemaScore). “Day One” cost $67 million to produce, so it is well positioned in its theatrical run.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for this weekend’s other newcomer, Kevin Costner’s epic gamble “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1.” The $100 million-budgeted film about the expansion of the Western frontier raked in a disastrous $11 million from 4,000 theaters.

Costner and distributor Warner Bros. were counting on fans of the actor’s hit television series, “Yellowstone,” to help the film break through in the United States. But negative reviews and negative word of mouth from moviegoers (the film has a 39% score on Rotten Tomato and a B- score on CinemaScore) are unlikely to lead to a recovery in ticket sales. This is problematic because a sequel, “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2,” is scheduled to hit the big screen in two months, on August 16.

Costner, who reportedly spent more than $38 million of his own money to finance the film series (which he wants to expand to four parts), has more to lose than Warners. The studio only has to pay for distribution. One theory behind this dismal turnout is that “Horizon” was more like a miniseries than a feature film.

“Kevin Costner got a lot of exposure in ‘Yellowstone’ on Paramount+. In that market, a film production that looks like TV is at a disadvantage,” said David A. Gross, who runs the film consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. He added that “a good ancillary revenue would mitigate some of the red ink, but not all of it.”

“A Quiet Place: Day One” had one of the biggest openings of the year and could have topped the charts any other weekend. However, Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” continues to do well in its third weekend of release, once again dominating the box office with $57 million. So far, “Inside Out 2” has grossed $469 million domestically and $545 million internationally, making it the highest-grossing film of the year. With $1.015 billion worldwide, it is now the first film of 2024 to join the coveted billion-dollar club.

More soon…