Him's Disappointing Box Office Proves One Thing About Jordan Peele

Jordan Peele has earned the respect of audiences all over the world. After spending years in the comedy space, known best for a long time for the sketch show "Key & Peele," he became an unexpected, promising voice in the horror space when "Get Out" hit theaters in 2017. Ever since, he's been one of the most trusted voices in the genre space. Unfortunately for Universal Pictures, though, there is a big difference between Peele as a director and as a producer. Case in point: "Him."

Directed by Justin Tipping, the football horror flick "HIM" hit the box office over the weekend with a disappointing $13.5 million take domestically. That was well below pre-release box office projections, which had it pulling in much closer to $20 million, if not more. To make matters much, much worse, the film made an abysmal $400,000 overseas from 25 different markets. The only good news for Universal here is that "Him" boasts a very reasonable $27 million price tag, before marketing. Even so, with virtually no help from international markets, this movie is going to struggle mightily to break even before VOD and streaming comes into play.

Competition was a bit of a factor here. "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle" held onto the top spot with $17.3 million, despite a massive drop. "The Conjuring: Last Rites" similarly pulled in $12.3 million in its third weekend, proving to be a huge crowd pleaser after its record-breaking opening. Even "The Long Walk" held pretty well after a good-but-not-great opening, bringing in $6.3 million over its second frame. The point is that genre fans had choices.

"Him" centers on Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers), a rising star quarterback who is attacked by a violent fan and suffers a potentially career-ending brain injury. In response, his hero, the legendary quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), offers to train Cam at an isolated compound that he shares with his celebrity influencer wife, Elsie White (Julia Fox). As Cam dives deeper into his unconventional training, however, he falls down a rabbit hole that is far deeper (and darker) than he ever bargained for.

As a director, Peele is almost unmatched right now in his ability to galvanize both audiences and critics around an original movie. "Get Out" was a staggeringly huge hit with $260 million worldwide against a tiny $4.5 million budget. It also won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and scored a Best Picture nomination. When his follow-up film "Us" arrived in 2019 and also made a massive $256 million worldwide, it became clear that Peele had the goods for real.

Peele's 2022 offering "Nope" was a more expensive affair, with a $68 million budget, but it nevertheless achieved the biggest box office opening for an original movie ($44.3 million) in the time since "Us" had debuted three years prior. That's to say, Peele was competing against himself, with "Nope" ultimately topping out at $172 million worldwide. Another win, without question, especially now that it's become crystal clear just how hard it is to get people to show up for original movies in the current market. To that end, the Margot Robbie-led "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" flopped this past weekend with a terrible $3.5 million debut.

What we're learning now, however, is that Peele's name absolutely has appeal as a director, but it's much more limited when he's a producer only. He saved Dev Patel's "Monkey Man" for just $10 million from Netflix, but it only made $35 million worldwide last year. It was by no means a flop, but it wasn't a big hit either. Meanwhile, the Peele-backed "Candyman" did reasonably well in 2021, earning $77 million globally against a $25 million budget. Similarly, back in the pre-pandemic world, 2018's "BlacKkKlansman" made $93 million against a $15 million budget, which was a damn fine result. Still, that seems to be the ceiling for movies involving Peele as a producer at the moment. The floor gets pretty low, too, as evidenced by 2022's "Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul" making just $2.5 million in total.

"Him" suffered from terrible reviews, but because Peele's name was on the poster, it didn't absolutely flop domestically. Having his name attached to a project can be extremely helpful, but it's by no means the same to audiences as having him in the director's chair. That much is clear.

"HIM" is now playing in theaters.