Blumhouse’s Wolf Man looks like a monster at the box office

The name Lee Whannell may not be familiar to everyone, but if you’re a horror fan, he’s undoubtedly influenced your life in some way over the past 20 years. As one of the creators of the long-running Saw franchise as well as “Insidious”, he definitely left his mark. Not to mention his directorial work, which includes The Update and The Invisible Man. In other words, Whannell’s work is worth noting. In particular, his new take on The Wolf Man is drawing more than a few eyes and figures to be a big hit for Blumhouse and Universal when it hits theaters next weekend.

The Wolf Man is currently looking to open in the $20 million to $30 million range for Cash theory. That would be a good start, especially for a movie that was made on a measly $7 million budget. Granted, this doesn’t include marketing, but even so, it should be a huge success to begin with. It also doesn’t hurt that the latest big horror movie is out in theaters “Nosferatu” at Christmas, which has been killing him up to this point. However, viewers will be in for something different next week.

One thing that definitely has to be on Whannell’s side here is critical acclaim. While full reviews of the film haven’t dropped as of this writing, initial social media reactions to The Wolf Man have been mostly overwhelmingly positive despite an early marketing ploy that offered a rather unflattering look at the film’s titular creature design. Fortunately, based on early word that the tragically bad Wolf Man from last year’s Halloween Horror Nights is not fully representative of the actual film.

Really, the only downside is that The Wolfman will have competition coming off the assembly line. Steven Soderbergh’s acclaimed supernatural horror film The Presence hits theaters on January 24. After that Warner Bros.’ At the end of the month, the sci-fi horror film “Satellite” will be released. The latter film also has a lot going for it because it comes from producer Zach Kreger of Barbarian fame. However, these films all come in different sub-genres, so there can/should be room for all of them.

The Wolf Man centers on Blake (Christopher Abbott), a man who inherits a remote Oregon childhood home after his father mysteriously disappears. Although his marriage to his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) is falling apart, Blake convinces her to take a break from the city and visit home with their young daughter Ginger (Mathlida Firth). However, upon arriving at the house, they are attacked by an unseen animal and must barricade themselves inside the building while the creature hides. Then, as night falls, Blake begins to act strangely. Horror is coming.

Whannell retires from the 2020s The Invisible Man, which became a huge hit, landed him his first deal with Blumhouse. It was also a major winner both critically and commercially, which is part of what led the director to put his stamp on the werewolf mythos.

Barring disastrous word-of-mouth from moviegoers, with a box office this size, especially with foreign collections, The Wolf Man could easily top $100 million worldwide. It’s slated to open in the same box office as Legs ($22.4M in opening / $126.9M worldwide) and Smile 2 ($23M in opening / $138M in the whole world). This is good company.

Assuming all goes well, Blumhouse plans to start 2025 much stronger than it did in 2024. This time last year, if you recall, the studio released Night Bath , a horror film that grossed just over $54 million at the box office. to the whole world. It was still a small financial success, but not to the level that the studio often allows itself. It wasn’t until “Speak No Evil” was released last September that Blumhouse also finally turned things around. In that case, 2025 is already looking like a much better time for Blumhouse, horror, and the box office in general.

The Wolfman hits theaters on January 17, 2025.