Insidious: The Red Door Sails Past $100 Million At The Global Box Office
While it may have been overshadowed by "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" and the Tom Cruise of it all, we should not lose sight of the fact that "Insidious: The Red Door" is having a stellar run at the box office right now, having already handily crossed the $100 million mark worldwide. It probably shouldn't come as a big surprise that the fifth movie in a very successful horror franchise is making good money. But this one, in particular, is hanging in there right in the middle of a crowded summer movie season, so much so that it may end up becoming the highest-grossing horror movie of 2023 so far in the coming days/weeks.
According to The Numbers, "The Red Door" added $13 million to its growing total at the domestic box office this past weekend. Granted, that represents a 61% drop week-to-week, which isn't great for a lot of movies. But horror tends to be pretty front-loaded and, more importantly, this movie kept people coming all week. To that end, the film has earned a total of $58 million domestically to go along with a stellar $64.5 million internationally, bringing its running total to $122.5 million after just two weekends. Mind you, that's while "Dead Reckoning" was tearing it up across the globe for the last five days.
Directed by and starring Patrick Wilson, the latest installment in the "Insidious" franchise comes with a $16 million budget. That's more expensive than previous entries — particularly the original, which was made for a mere $1.5 million before becoming a $99 million hit – but it's still a relatively tiny sum compared to what the movie is pulling in. In a summer filled with relative disappointments, this is a big, big win.
Horror stays winning
Even if competition from the likes of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" makes it hard on the film in the weeks ahead, the fifth "Insidious" entry figures to top out with at least $80 million domestically. At its current spilt between domestic and international, we're probably looking at $90 million overseas finish on the low end, which means it would finish with $170 million worldwide, give or take. Currently, "Insidious: The Last Key" holds the record for the series with $172 million, so that is well within reach. It's an absolute home run for Sony Pictures to go along with "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse." Arguably the studio having the best summer at the moment.
More to the point, it's yet another example of a horror movie hitting it out of the park over the last year and change. Since the box office attempted to rebound from the lockdowns in 2021, horror has been arguably the most reliable genre. In 2022, we had "Barbarian" ($45 million box office/$5 million budget), "Violent Night" ($76 million box office/$20 million budget), "Scream" ($137 million box office/$24 million budget), "The Black Phone" ($161 million box office/$18 million budget), and "Smile" ($217 million box office/$17 million budget). This year, we can add "M3GAN" ($179 million box office/$12 million budget), "Evil Dead Rise" ($146 million box office/$17 million budget), and "Scream VI" ($169 million box office/$35 million budget) to that list.
All of this to say, horror is killing it right now. Does that mean Hollywood should invest in horror and only horror? Absolutely not! But it's worth keeping up with and continuing to invest in as a genre that filmmakers are allowed to be creative in. There's a low-risk/high reward here that often benefits original ideas. But for the moment, expect Sony to get that "Insidious" spin-off going as soon as it possibly can.
"Insidious: The Red Door" is in theaters now.