A Quiet Place: Day One Set To Be 2024's First Big Horror Box Office Hit

Paramount Pictures and director John Krasinski struck gold in 2018 with the blockbuster horror flick "A Quiet Place." Working from an original concept by screenwriters Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the film became an unexpected smash hit, paving the way for a new franchise that is still going strong. So strong that the studio has decided to offer up a prequel in the form of "A Quiet Place: Day One." With an appealing cast and an interesting hook, it appears as though this is going to break the genre's rough streak at the box office in 2024 to become the year's first major horror hit.

Paramount's "A Quiet Place" prequel is currently eyeing an opening in the $42 to $51 million range when it hits theaters next weekend, per Box Office Theory. That is pretty much in line with early tracking, which had the film taking in $40 million or more, according to Deadline. Should estimates hold, even on the low end, we'd be looking at by far the biggest opening weekend for any Hollywood horror movie of the year thus far. Not counting "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" and its $80 million opening back in March, Lionsgate's "The Strangers: Chapter 1" ($11.8 million) set the high bar in mid-May. High being a loose term in this case. Competition won't be much of a factor as Kevin Costner's "Horizon: An American Saga" is looking to open in the $12 million range.

2022 and 2023 saw quite a few breakout horror hits such as "Five Nights at Freddy's," "Scream VI," "Evil Dead Rise," "M3GAN," "Smile," and "The Black Phone," among others. 2024 has seen no such hits. Smaller films such as "In a Violent Nature" and "Late Night with the Devil" have done well on a curve, but they're not big enough hits to have a meaningful impact on the box office. In what has been a rough year overall for theaters, this movie has the chance to actually move the needle in the right direction.

As the title implies, "Day One" will take us back to the first day that aliens arrived on Earth to disrupt life as we know it. While Krasinski's first two films offered bits and pieces of what happened to the world, this movie promises to show society's downfall and why the world went quiet from the start. Michael Sarnoski ("Pig") is in the director's chair. The cast includes Lupita Nyong'o ("Black Panther"), Joseph Quinn ("Stranger Things"), Alex Wolff ("Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle"), and Djimon Hounsou ("Shazam! Fury of the Gods").

The first "A Quiet Place" opened to $50.2 million in 2018 on its way to $340.9 million worldwide. Despite pandemic circumstances, 2021's "A Quiet Place: Part II" kept the hot streak alive with a $47.5 million opening en route to a $297.3 million global finish. The first film was made for just $17 million, while the sequel got a heftier $61 million budget. Odds are, Paramount tried to keep the prequel in a similar range. That said, even if it's $80 million, let's say, a $40 million opening sets it up for an easy $100 million domestic haul, assuming reviews are even halfway decent.

It would be tough to imagine the movie not clearing $200 million globally, barring a disastrous response. That would still easily put this in the win column for Paramount. It would also mean we'll have a new global Hollywood horror champion very soon, as "Night Swim" ($54 million) is the current head of the pack. That's a pretty low bar to clear. Given that ticket sales for the year were down 26% before "Inside Out 2" had its record-breaking $295 million global opening recently, this couldn't be coming at a better time.

"A Quiet Place: Part One" is set to hit theaters on June 28, 2024.