‘Exorcist: Believer’ Gets Horrifying Reviews After Studio Gambled $400 Million for Rights
‘Exorcist: Believer’ Gets Horrifying Reviews After Studio Gambled $400 Million for Rights
The first film in an ambitious planned horror trilogy is being read last rites by critics after Universal shelled out $400 million for the rights alone. But could strong box office tracking make the studio's faith pay off?
I get they wanted to make the title punny. But in context, it's hard to tell if horrifying reviews, are good or bad for a horror movie.
Is that a lot just for the rights? Sounds like a lot.
For a dead franchise like The Exorcist? Yup. But Universal also gets rights to use in theme parks and streaming, so they MIGHT make their money back.
That’s why you hear it’s a big gamble for this new trilogy of Exorcist movies.
That really is a pretty big gamble. At $400m, they’re competing with some big name releases that made $500m
And I’m sure they’ll want more than just 100 in the green
$400m for the rights alone. It doesn't talk about cost of production.
Meaning they're looking to make that rights cost back across the trilogy rather than from one film, but they're constantly adding costs along the way.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The first film in a planned horror trilogy, Exorcist: Believer is getting rather poor reviews — scoring only a 28 22 20 percent average on Rotten Tomatoes.
Universal reportedly paid a head-spinning $400 million for the rights to the franchise in 2021, and Believer needs to generate enough momentum to help launch two more sequels.
Yet as producer Jason Blum pointed out to IndieWire in March, The Exorcist: Believer needs to generate some head-spinning box office returns.
“The riskiest movie I have ever made for sure is not out yet,” said Blum (M3GAN, Get Out, The Black Phone), who is regarded as the most prolific and successful horror hitmaker working today.
The film centers on Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.), whose daughter (Lidya Jewett) and her friend (Olivia Marcum) become possessed.
Yet neither title came close to the $30 million domestic opening weekend revenue that’s predicted for Believer and was scored by The Nun 2 — which received only a 52 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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I’m curious if this will sour the partnership between Blumhouse and Universal. The Halloween sequels didn’t do as good as 2018’s Halloween, and now this new Exorcist legacy sequel not meeting box office expectations.