Sam Raimi's First Horror Movie In 17 Years Is A Number One Box Office Hit

Sam Raimi, the mastermind behind "The Evil Dead" and "Darkman," has finally returned to the horror movie genre for the first time in nearly decades — as a director, anyway. While Raimi has produced hits like "Crawl" and "Don't Breathe," he hasn't called the shots on a horror film since 2009's chilling "Drag Me to Hell." Now, though, he's back with "Send Help," which is something audiences were clearly excited to see, as it topped the box office on a surprisingly competitive weekend.

Released by Disney's 20th Century Studios, "Send Help" opened to an estimated $20 million domestically over the weekend. That was just enough to fend off Markiplier's indie hit "Iron Lung," which debuted with an impressive $17.8 million, and was well above pre-release estimates, which had "Send Help" making closer to $10 million. Nevertheless, Raimi prevailed. The filmmaker's latest also pulled in an additional $8.1 million overseas for a $28.1 million global start.

That's by no means a home run against the movie's reported $40 million budget, but it's a good start, especially since this one will have a lot of streaming value once it arrives on Hulu. Moreover, it's truly hard to get people to turn up for original movies these days at all.

"Send Help" follows an employee and her boss as they wind up stranded on an island after a horrific plane crash, forcing them to work together to survive. Naturally, things soon get twisted and bloody along the way. Dylan O'Brien of "The Maze Runner" fame stars alongside Rachel McAdams, who previously worked with Raimi on "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," while Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (2009's "Friday the 13th") wrote the script.

While January was a very crowded month for horror, "Send Help" benefited from some of the genre's new releases falling short of expectations. Specifically, "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple" flopped at the box office and will come nowhere near its predecessor's $151 million worldwide total. Similarly, "Return to Silent Hill" was, at best, a minor hit thanks to outsized overseas grosses, while "Primate" did well enough domestically but is already out of the top 10. That cleared the path for Sam Raimi to reclaim the crown.

For Raimi, this continues a rather impressive streak dating back to 2002's "Spider-Man," which was the first movie to ever make $100 million at the box office on opening weekend. It went on to gross more than $820 million worldwide and remains a defining superhero blockbuster. Raimi would also go on to direct "Spider-Man 2" and "Spider-Man 3," which also debuted at number one. Altogether, those movies pulled in more than $2.5 billion at the box office collectively.

While Raimi had enjoyed success before that, the 21st century has been particularly fruitful for him. He additionally directed 2013's "Oz the Great and Powerful" ($493 million worldwide) and 2022's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" ($955 million worldwide). "Drag Me to Hell" is the only movie he's directed since 2000 that didn't top the box office. All the same, it made $91 million on a $30 million budget. Basically, Raimi's as close to bulletproof as they come in Hollywood.

The question now is: What comes next? Will Raimi do yet another horror movie? Or is he going to direct something big, like "Doctor Strange 3" perhaps? In the meantime, he gets to celebrate another win. 

"Send Help" is in theaters now.