The Biggest Horror Bombs Of 2023 So Far

Horror movies have been the not-so-secret backbone of Hollywood for decades. It's why slasher franchises like "Halloween" or "Friday the 13th" never truly die. It's also why a studio like Blumhouse Productions can attract filmmakers to produce low-budget, original ideas and turn them into hits. In an age when original movies seem nearly impossible to turn into theatrical hits, horror is a safe haven of sorts. Just look at what happened with Parker Finn's "Smile" last year, with the film making $217 million worldwide despite almost going directly to Paramount+.

While horror can absolutely have a higher success rate than many other genres out there, it doesn't always pan out. A few movies in 2023 have proven that horror is not bullet-proof, with an expensive, action-heavy take on Dracula and a trippy waking nightmare comedy from the guy who made "Midsommar" serving as a pair of cautionary tales. What went wrong with the genre films that failed to ignite the box office this year? Let's get into it as we look back at the biggest horror commercial misfires of 2023 so far.

January tends to be a mixed bag for new movies. Occasionally, you get an unexpected breakout, much like what happened with "M3GAN" this year. But you also get movies that sort of shoot their shot, hoping to perhaps catch on with audiences given a lack of blockbuster competition. It just doesn't pan out sometimes. That was the case with director Deon Taylor's "Fear," which came and went in a flash. It's a shame too, as the film was independently distributed and produced during the pandemic. It was an admirable filmmaking pursuit that didn't pan out commercially. At least not theatrically, anyhow.

The film centers on a group of friends who have a nightmare stay in the mountains during the pandemic. It was met with roundly negative reviews upon release and, coupled with very little mainstream promotion, was doomed from the start. "Fear" failed to crack the top 10 at the box office on its opening weekend and all but disappeared from theaters within three weeks. It earned a mere $2 million in total. The good news here is that the film was made without a big studio budget so, over time, it stands to make its money back through VOD and streaming. Still, the lack of buzz means this one also stands the risk of, more or less, being lost to time.

Ari Aster proved himself as one of cinema's most promising up-and-coming directors in short order with his first two movies, "Hereditary" and "Midsommar." So when he teamed up with an Oscar-winning actor like Joaquin Phoenix for a big, weird odyssey like "Beau is Afraid," it certainly seemed like the kind of movie that could break through with mainstream audiences. But while it may have seemed that way, it absolutely proved not to be the case. With a blistering three-hour runtime and a remarkably weird story to tell, A24 had a tough time selling this one to mainstream moviegoers. High praise from Martin Scorsese only goes so far.

Against a $35 million budget (before marketing), "Beau is Afraid" earned just $10.9 million worldwide, with less than $3 million of that coming from international audiences. Horror has been one of the few genres in the aftermath of the lockdowns capable of producing an original hit, but this proved to be a bridge too far. Aster is going to be fine as his hits far outweigh this one miss but it certainly puts more pressure on what comes next for the filmmaker.

Nicolas Cage has been on an upswing for the past few years thanks to acclaimed movies such as "Mandy" and "Pig" after something like a decade stuck doing largely direct-to-video schlock. Universal Pictures had the big, bright idea to cast the Oscar-winning actor as Dracula in a new take on the famed literary bloodsucker that ultimately took the form of "Renfield." The film, which features Nicholas Hoult as Dracula's famed assistant, takes place in the modern day and represents Cage's first studio movie since 2011. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out as well as it sounded like it could have on paper.

Despite a compelling performance from Cage as the iconic vampire, director Chis McKay's "Renfield" was met with mixed reviews upon arrival and was trounced at the box office in the face of major competition from the likes of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," "John Wick: Chapter 4," and more importantly, "The Pope's Exorcist." Against a pretty hefty $65 million budget, "Renfield" opened to just $8 million and faced a steep drop-off from there. It topped out with a hugely disappointing $26.2 million worldwide. Even against a much smaller budget, that would have been a bad result. Against the financials as they exist, Universal was emptied much like one of Dracula's victims.