While we are waiting for blockbusters, last weekend’s North American box office title was once again won by a horror film: “The Exorcist: Believer” produced by Universal Pictures was released in 3,663 theaters and earned 2,720 The film opened with a box office of US$10,000, but its production cost was only US$30 million.

"The Exorcist: The Believer" stills

The film is directed by David Gordon Green, who filmed the new version of the "Moonlight" trilogy. Universal obviously hopes that the long-dormant "Exorcist IP" can be reborn in his hands.

The original "The Exorcist" directed by William Friedkin and released in 1973 has already become a horror classic. It has been voted the best horror film in film history many times in various voting and best film ranking activities. Two sequels were released in 1977 and 1990, but the reviews were not satisfactory. The two so-called prequels launched consecutively in 2004 and 2005 also failed at the box office, causing Warner to completely give up the idea of continuing to develop this IP.

This time, Universal Pictures spent US$400 million to bid for the distribution rights to the new version of the "Exorcist" trilogy. Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn, who played mother and daughter in the original version, have also been re-invited, adding a lot of original flavor to this so-called direct sequel to the 1973 original "The Exorcist".

However, on the film review website "Rotten Tomatoes", the film currently only has a 22% freshness rating. The audience poll score after the premiere was only a very low C grade - you know, among all the new films released on a large scale this year, the only ones are the horror film "The Visit" and the action film starring Liam Neeson. The movie "Halfway" received such a low score. This shows how dissatisfied the audience is with the new version of "The Exorcist". This also makes people wonder whether the US$400 million spent by Universal is worth it.

The release date shown on the poster for "The Exorcist: Believer" is October 13. Due to avoidance of the concert film "Taylor Swift: The Age of Concert Tour", the release was postponed to October 6

It is worth mentioning that the original release date of "The Exorcist: The Believer" was not last weekend, but this Friday, but it met the unexpected release of the concert movie "Taylor Swift: The Time Tour". Concert" can only be postponed temporarily. The resulting economic losses are said to be not a small amount. Moreover, the two recently released films of the same type, "The Nun 2" and "Saw 10," are too close together, making it easy for viewers to suffer from aesthetic fatigue.

However, no matter how much the loss is, "The Exorcist: The Believer" has only one option: to change its schedule. Because the power of Taylor Swift is really hard to match. According to AMC, the film's distributor, there is still one week left until the film is released, and the global pre-sale box office of this concert film has officially exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars; moreover, many markets, including mainland China, are still negotiating to purchase copyrights.

Therefore, if "The Exorcist: The Believer" does not temporarily change its schedule, the total North American box office performance last weekend is likely to fall to 55 million U.S. dollars (actually about 75 million U.S. dollars), which will become the third worst in 2023 Weekend totals.