Hotly-Hyped Horror Movie Longlegs Sets A New Box Office Record For Neon

"Longlegs" won't need long legs to succeed at the box office. The much-hyped horror movie from director Osgood Perkins is a hit in its opening weekend, where it's on track to gross around $22 million. That's more than double the production budget which, according to indie film studio Neon (via World of Reel), was less than $10 million.

According to The Wrap, early tracking for "Longlegs" indicated a debut of $7-9 million, so it has massively outperformed expectations. Meanwhile, Neon has set two new box office opening weekend records in the same year, first with the Sydney Sweeney-starring "Immaculate" ($5.3 million), and now with "Longlegs." The film stars established horror scream queen Maika Monroe ("It Follows," "Watcher") as rookie FBI agent Lee Harker, who is assigned to work on a disturbing case involving a serial killer known only as Longlegs (played by Nicolas Cage).

In addition to the thrifty production budget for "Longlegs," Deadline reports that Neon kept the marketing and distribution budget constrained to "single digits," and focused advertising on digital platforms rather than TV. This movie is a strong case study for the power of a really great trailer — and, on the flip side, a reminder of just how much damage a bad or boring trailer can do to a movie's chances at the box office.

One major asset that the "Longlegs" marketing team had on their side was a wealth of rave reviews (including one from /Film) offering tantalizing quotes like "The best serial killer movie since 'The Silence of the Lambs'" and "The scariest film of the decade." The trailers were punctuated with these quotes, along with a coveted 100% Rotten Tomatoes score (it's since dropped to 87%, but that's nothing to be sniffed at).

Jumping off from the hype about how terrifying "Longlegs" is, the marketing emphasized the promise of good old-fashioned cinema scares. One promo included a recording of Monroe's heartbeat hitting 170 bpm the first time she shot a scene with Cage in makeup as Longlegs. The excellent teasers and trailers gave a taste of what the film had to offer while giving away very little about the actual plot (having seen it myself just yesterday, a major element of the story came as a total surprise). The first teaser, simply titled "You've got the teeth of the hydra upon you," took a cue from the original trailers for "Alien" by simply showing quick cuts of terrifying moments with no dialogue.

Horror, perhaps more than any other genre, can go from rags to riches with the right marketing campaign. We saw it happen with "The Blair Witch Project" 25 years ago, and more recently with movies like "Smile" and "M3GAN." In August, we'll find out if Neon's next horror movie — "Cuckoo," starring Hunter Schafer and also boasting an absolutely wicked trailer — can give the studio a hat trick of horror hits in 2024.