Focus Features and director Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu remake is off to a very impressive start at the box office.
The gothic horror retelling of the silent vampire classic opened with $40.3M domestically and $3M overseas from just 5 markets, for a worldwide total of $43.3M. The movie has a reported production budget of $50M.
This marks the second-biggest opening for an R-rated horror film in 2024 behind Alien: Romulus, and the movie has already become Eggers’ top-grossing domestic release to date.
Though some critics weren't quite as enamoured with Nosferatu as others, the movie is holding strong at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 218 reviews.
Despite one image of the vampire recently leaking online, the marketing ploy of keeping Bill Skarsgård's take on Count Orlok under wraps clearly paid off.
Eggers revealed his thought process behind the vampire's look during a recent interview with Deadline.
“What would a dead Transylvanian nobleman actually look like? That was basically where I started from, and I wanted to still acknowledge Max Schreck’s makeup design.”
As for Skarsgård, while he would ultimately get used to the design, he was far from convinced upon first seeing the prosthetics he'd be required to wear.
“Bill sees the sculpt of the bust and he freaks out, and he’s like, ‘That doesn’t look anything like me, this guy didn’t look like me when he was even alive,'" recalls Eggers. "'What the f*ck?’ He wasn’t mean, but he was alarmed. And I was like, ‘Well, that’s the point, that you’re totally transforming into somebody else.’ And then, he’s putting the makeup on and he’s like, ‘Ugh, I look like a goblin. This is terrible.’ And then, once they put the hair on, even though the makeup wasn’t totally finished, I saw the first moment when he was like, ‘OK, this is cool. This is a person.’ I started to see him in the mirror, playing around, trying to do something."
In related box office news, Disney's Mufasa: The Lion King ultimately claimed the Christmas crown after a close race with Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
The family-friendly video game threequel was slightly ahead during the traditional weekend ($38 million between Friday and Sunday; $59.8 million from 3,769 venues since Christmas Day on Wednesday), but Mufasa managed to nab the No. 1 spot over the five-day stretch ($37.1 million between Friday and Sunday; $63.9 million from 4,100 theaters since Wednesday).
As for Kraven the Hunter, Sony Pictures' latest (possibly final) SSU movie has just limped past the $50 million mark worldwide.
Did/do you plan to see any of these movies over the weekend? Let us know in the comment section down below.