‘Terrifier 3’ tops box office with $18 million debut, ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ collapses with brutal 81% drop
There’s only room for one killer clown at the top of box office charts.
“Terrifier 3” slashed its way to No. 1 in North America, collecting a stellar $18.3 million from 2,514 theaters in its opening weekend. It’s a huge start for the ultra-gory, independently made, low-budget slasher film about a demonic clown who brutalizes a small town.
Meanwhile “Joker: Folie á Deux,” which topped the box office last weekend, collapsed in third place with $7.055 million from 4,102 theaters. It could end up in fourth place, behind holdover “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” once the final numbers are tallied on Monday. The off-beat comic book musical, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a reclusive stand-up comedian and part-time clown, suffered a tragic 82% decline in ticket sales from its already-disastrous $37.6 million debut. It ranks as one of the biggest-second weekend drops for the superhero genre, plunging more severely than last year’s misfires of “The Marvels” (78.1%), “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (69.9%), “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” (69%) and “The Flash” (72.5%).
So far, “Folie a Deux” has generated $51.6 million domestically and $165.3 million globally. The Warner Bros. film carries a hefty $200 million price tag and, at this rate, will struggle to get anywhere near the $450 million needed to break even, according to sources familiar with the financials.
“Terrifier 3” has surprisingly positive critical and audience reactions for such an unsettling movie, scoring a “B” on CinemaScore and 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. The blood-soaked threequel, which doesn’t have a rating by the Motion Picture Association, has been stoking conversation about violence, with the distributors at Cineverse launching a hotline for moviegoers to complain about the carnage.
The third “Terrifier” installment has already surpassed the entire global haul of its predecessor, 2022’s “Terrifier 2.” That film defied the odds — and similarly dared moviegoers to not vomit — by earning $10 million domestically and $15.7 million globally, a scary-good result for the micro-budget production. The third movie, again directed by Damien Leone, features the sadistic Art the Clown, who usually strikes around Halloween, but this time decided to wait until Christmas to unleash his terror.
“This is an outstanding opening for a third episode in an indie horror series,” says analyst David A. Gross of movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “The series is not on the level of studio horror pictures — those are bigger movies — but […] it’s a great payoff.”
Fellow newcomer, “Piece By Piece,” a documentary that tells the life story of Pharrell Williams using Lego animation, fell short of expectations, opening in sixth place with $3.8 million from 1,865 locations. Focus Features is releasing the $16 million-budgeted film, which landed a promising “A” grade on CinemaScore and holds an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Musical bios and Lego each have a strong track-record on the big screen. This hybrid is not on the level of those individual genres,” says Gross. However, he adds, “The cost was reasonable. The movie is going to play well in ancillary markets and become profitable there.”
Sony’s “Saturday Night” struggled to breakthrough to mainstream audiences after two weekends in limited release. The high-wire look at the inaugural broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” landed at No. 7 with a muted $3.4 million from 2,300 theaters over the weekend.
Another new release, “The Apprentice” crumbled in 11th place with $1.58 million from 1,740 venues. The biographical drama, in which Sebastian Stan portrays a young Donald Trump, struggled to find a buyer until Briarcliff Entertainment acquired the rights. Reviewers and audiences were mixed on the movie, which earned a “B-” CinemaScore and 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. One prominent critic has been Trump himself, who has threatened legal action over the movie.
