A24’s Heretic, the R-rated horror movie from A Quiet Place scribes Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, began its journey this weekend with $1.2 million in previews last night that began at 7 p.m. That figure doesn’t include the Salt Lake City sneaks that recently occurred.
Heretic‘s Thursday number is $100,000 shy from the amount that A24’s Ari Aster horror pic Hereditary did back in summer 2018, but above the $1M that Universal’s Radio Silence horror movie Abigail did and the $725K that Lionsgate/Blumhouse’s Imaginary took in; Abigail opened to $10.2M back in April while Imaginary did $9.9M back in March.
Heretic is expected to open to $10M-$12M and could steal the No. 1 spot from Sony’s Venom: The Last Dance, which is entering its third frame.
The Hugh Grant-starring Heretic is 94% certified fresh with critics and received 3 stars from audiences last night. A24 acquired domestic on the movie.
‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever‘
Lionsgate
Also starting off last night was Lionsgate/Kingdom Story’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which did $500K yesterday from previews that began at 4 p.m. All in with early access sneaks, the Dallas Jenkins feature take of the Barbara Robinson bestseller counts $2.8M, having grossed $2.3M in one day with early sneaks. NRG tracking the movie at $6M-$8M, with exhibition believing that number is higher.
Best Christmas Pageant Ever is 85% fresh with critics, 99% on the popcorn-meter, 4 1/2 stars with general audiences on PostTrak, 5 stars with parents, and 5 stars with kids under 12.
The rest of the week:
1.) Venom: The Last Dance (Sony) 4,131 theaters, Thu $1.6M (-3%), Wk $34.6M, Total $98.6M/Wk 2
As we told you earlier, the Kelly Marcel directed, Tom Hardy starring threequel is crossing $100M today.
2.) Wild Robot (Uni/DWA) 3,237 (-190) theaters Thu $481K (+5%), Wk $10.3M, Total $124.3M/Wk 6
3.) Smile 2 (Par) 3,235 (-389) theaters, Thu $610K (-2%), Wk $9.6M, Total $55.5M/Wk 3
4.) Conclave (Foc) 1,796 (+43) theaters, Thu $542K (-3%) Wk $7.46M , Total $17.3M/ Wk 2
5.) Here (Sony/Miramax) 2,647 theaters, Thu $411K (-9%) Wk $7M/Wk 1