Speak No Evil Is Here To Rescue Blumhouse's Rough Year At The Box Office

The name Blumhouse has become almost synonymous with horror in the modern era, thanks to the success of franchises such as "The Purge," "Paranormal Activity," and the recent "Halloween" reboot trilogy. That sort of brand recognition is tough to acquire in Hollywood. That said, the studio has had something of an off year, and could use an unqualified hit to get things back on track. It looks like the upcoming "Speak No Evil" remake could be that much-needed hit when it opens next weekend.

Director James Watkins' take on "Speak No Evil" is currently eyeing a debut in the $15 to $20 million range, per Box Office Theory. While the budget has yet to be revealed, Blumhouse rarely goes over $20 million since its business model has always been predicated on spending low to potentially hit it big. It worked with Jordan Peele's "Get Out," it worked with M. Night Shyamalan's comeback film "The Visit" – it's worked time and time again. It's just how studio head Jason Blum likes to do business. If we safely assume Blumhouse and Universal didn't overspend on "Speak No Evil," that's a healthy start. Especially given that this is the kind of movie that could play for weeks to come in the lead up to Halloween.

Even on the low end, that would put it in a similar range as Blumhouse's "Unfriended" ($15.8 million opening/$64.3 million finish). If it can climb even just a little bit higher, things start to look far better. It could be in the same company as films like "The First Purge" ($17.3 million opening/$137 million finish), "Truth or Dare" ($18.6 million opening/$95.2 million finish) or Scott Derrickson's "Sinister" ($18 million opening/$82 million finish). That's good company to be in, and it's certainly the sort of success that Blumhouse would like to get back to on a more regular basis.

"Speak No Evil" is a remake of the rather disturbing 2022 Danish film of the same name from director Christian Tafdrup. This version centers on an American family who are invited to spend the weekend at a country estate of a charming British family they met on vacation. Before long, what begins as a nice holiday getaway devolves into a nightmare. The cast includes James McAvoy ("Split"), Scoot McNairy ("Argo"), Mackenzie Davis ("Terminator: Dark Fate"), and Aisling Franciosi ("Game of Thrones").

2024 has not been particularly kind to Blumhouse, by Blumhouse standards anyhow. The studio's offerings this year have been, at best, modest successes and, at worst, major disappointments. "Night Swim" ($54.7 million worldwide) was released in January and, all due respect, was no "M3GAN." That was followed up by "Imaginary," which did $43.6 million worldwide against a $13 million budget, earning brutal reviews along the way. More recently, the AI thriller "Afraid" opened to a terrible $3.6 million domestically, making it essentially dead on arrival.

By contrast, the studio had massive hits in 2023 such as "Insidious: The Red Door" ($186.2 million worldwide) and the breakout phenomenon that was "Five Nights at Freddy's" ($297.1 million worldwide), which ranks as Blumhouse's biggest movie ever. Yes, "The Exorcist: Believer" was a critical disaster and forced Blumhouse to abandon its original plans for the franchise, but it still made $136.9 million against a $30 million production budget. The problem there was the massive $500 million deal that Universal made for the rights to three "Exorcist" films.

The larger point is that Blumhouse is used to a certain level of success. When they lose, they tend to lose small, but even a major studio can only suffer so many misfires in a row. Blumhouse could use a win and even with direct competition such as "Never Let Go" and "Bagman" coming down the pipeline in September, this remake seems well positioned to be that hit. If critics are kind — and the early social media reactions indicate they will be — the movie's prospects only stand to improve from here.

"Speak No Evil" hits theaters on September 13, 2024.