Can Lisa Frankenstein Scare Some Life Into The Box Office?
The box office is very much in need of saving right now. January was pretty rough, with only the likes of "Mean Girls" and "The Beekeeper" there to keep theaters afloat. February is looking even more bleak as holdovers from December of last year are finally starting to taper off and "Argylle" underperformed somewhat. So, what (if anything) is coming to the rescue for movie theaters in desperate need of something new to show? "Lisa Frankenstein" is next up to bat and, at least right now, it looks unlikely to score a home run. That said, it may deliver a solid enough single, to expand upon the baseball metaphor here.
Serving as the feature directorial debut of Zelda Williams, "Lisa Frankenstein" is a horror-comedy from Oscar-winning writer Diablo Cody ("Juno"). It has two promising young stars leading the way: Kathryn Newton ("Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania") and Cole Sprouse ("Riverdale"). In short, it seemingly has a lot going for it. Yet all of that, it appears, is going to amount to a relatively modest debut, with the film expected to bring in anywhere between $9 and $14 million on opening weekend, per Box Office Pro. Even on the high end, that isn't going to be enough to bring the box office roaring back to life. That said, it might be enough to turn this movie into a decent hit.
Fortunately, Focus Features didn't overspend on "Lisa Frankenstein" as the budget is under $14 million. Even when accounting for marketing, an opening weekend of $14 million — give or take — would be a total win. As always, the benefit of horror is that it can be made cheaply as a low-risk/high-reward prospect. Blumhouse's whole business model is built on that concept. If reviews are good and word of mouth follows, this one could easily be profitable before it hits VOD.
Can Lisa Frankenstein defy modest expectations?
"Lisa Frankenstein" centers on a misunderstood teenager (Newton) and her high school crush, who happens to be a handsome corpse (Sprouse). After a set of horrific circumstances bring him back to life, they embark on a murderous journey with one another. Liza Soberano ("Make It with You"), Henry Eikenberry ("The Crowded Room"), Joe Chrest ("Stranger Things"), and Carla Gugino ("The Fall of the House of Usher") round out the cast.
We've seen in recent years that the right horror movie can break out in a big way. "M3GAN" remains one of the biggest original movies of any kind since the pandemic began, taking in $181 million worldwide against a similar $12 million budget. "Lisa Frankenstein" feels like it's going for a related audience. At the same time, Focus has ushered a more modest marketing campaign for the film relative to "M3GAN" and other recent studio horror hits such as "Smile" or "Thanksgiving." Could this movie be missing out on a larger audience due to a lack of awareness?
The best-case scenario here would be for "Lisa Frankenstein" to leg out in the coming weeks. Maybe it does open to $14 million or so. But maybe that's enough for it to take the number one spot away from "Argylle," and maybe get some ink spilled in its favor. Maybe audiences who do see it will have nice things to say about it. Maybe that leads to a better-than-usual hold in the weeks that follow. Maybe this is me being optimistic, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.
"Lisa Frankenstein" hits theaters on February 9, 2024.