5 Reasons Why Wolf Man Is A Big Box Office Disappointment

The weekend did not unfold quite as Blumhouse and Universal had planned. With the release of director Leigh Whannell's "Wolf Man," the studios probably figured they had a slam dunk hit on their hands. Unfortunately, that's not the way things shook out. Whannell's latest majorly underperformed, falling well short of expectations. Rather than top the charts, it had to settle for third place in 2025's first major surprise.

"Wolf Man" opened to an estimated $10.5 million domestically, which was below even the most modest projections heading into the weekend. Overseas audiences aren't going to be much help here either, as the film opened soft internationally with just $4.8 million. Blumhouse tends to make movies on the cheap, but this one carries a $25 million price tag before marketing. Now, the monster flick is facing a steep uphill battle to profitability.

As the weekend approached, "Wolf Man" was looking at a debut in the $20 million range. That would have been an unqualified win. So, what went wrong? Why did Whannell's latest fall so far short of expectations? Is there any chance of a recovery? We're going to look at the bigger picture, breaking down five of the biggest reasons why this movie became a major disappointment. Let's get into it.

First and foremost, the reviews for "Wolf Man" were not particularly good, to put it lightly. The film currently holds a 52% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, to go with a 58% audience score. Worse still, it earned a downright terrible C- CinemaScore, which is among the lowest for nearly any horror movie since 2020. That doesn't bode well for its prospects in the coming weeks. /Film's Jeremy Mathai called "Wolf Man" a "half-effective fright fest" in his 6 out of 10 review. In short, positivity was tough to come by.

The reinvention of the werewolf mythos centers on Blake (Christopher Abbott), who inherits his remote childhood home in Oregon after his dad disappears. Blake convinces his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) to take a break from the city and visit the house with their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). Upon arrival, they're attacked by a mysterious animal and are forced to barricade themselves inside with the creature lurking. As the night rolls on, Blake begins to act strangely.

Whannell previously pulled off a brilliant update to another monster classic in 2020 with "The Invisible Man," so expectations were very high for this one. Right or wrong, that seems to be working against his latest directorial effort.

There's no getting around the fact that the design of the creature in "Wolf Man" didn't help this movie's case. Universal cleverly tried to hide the final design of the werewolf in the marketing. However, there was a now-infamous snafu where someone was dressed in costume as the creature at Halloween Horror Nights, which went viral and sort of poisoned the well.

It would be unfair to say that the costume was a wholly accurate representation of what's in the movie. It would be fair to say that Whannell did something unique, which was always going to be divisive. Had that incident at Halloween Horror Nights not happened, who knows? But the way things shook out, at least a certain number of people seemed to think they were going to be the victims of a bait and switch.

One of the biggest surprises of the weekend was Sony's "One of Them Days," which topped the charts with an estimated $11.6 million. The well-reviewed comedy came out of nowhere to essentially tie with Disney's "Mufasa: The Lion King" ($11.5 million) atop the charts. While neither of these are horror movies, it does illustrate that audiences had other crowd-pleasing options to choose from if they were dead set on going to the movies. Why go see a movie with bad word of mouth when there are other things to catch up on?

For those who were set on seeing a horror movie, Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu" is still out there doing business. That might have been the more attractive option for viewers who had been dragging their heels on seeing it in previous weeks. Had word of mouth been stronger for Whannell's latest, we might be having a different conversation. But when there is so little good buzz, it's tough to get any sort of momentum.

January movies are often not representative of Hollywood studios unleashing their A game. January is traditionally viewed as a "dump month" for studios. While that's not always true, with movies like "Bad Boys for Life" shifting that narrative, it's still a thing. Part of that has to do with the fact that the NFL playoffs are usually airing during this time, which can be tough to compete with. To that end, this past weekend featured marquee matchups between the Houston Texas and Kansas City Chiefs as well as the Washington Commanders and Detroit Lions on Saturday. We also had the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles along with the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

Those games determined which four teams will duke it out for a chance to play in the Super Bowl. That being the case, a lot of potential ticket buyers were off the table. Again, if buzz for "Wolf Man" was strong, some of those people might have figured out a way to pencil in some movie time. Who knows? If Ryan Gosling had starred in it, as was originally the plan, things might have been different. As it is, for a large percentage of the U.S., football won.

Perhaps more than any other subset of moviegoers, horror fans are very discerning. They are loyal and will show up when they are being catered to. They are hungry and seek things out. That said, they also aren't ones to fall into the "fool me twice" camp all that often. That being the case, it's hard not to wonder if Blumhouse's bad streak at the box office in 2024 was a factor here.

Blumhouse is a name horror fans know, with "The Purge," "Get Out," the recent "Halloween" movies, and "Five Nights at Freddy's," among many other hits, to their name. But last year saw the release of "Night Swim," "Imaginary," and "Afraid," all of which greatly under-delivered. The only winner was the studio's remake of "Speak No Evil." Even in 2023, the studio had to suffer the failure of "Exorcist: Believer." So it's possible that audiences who pay attention are taking a wait and see approach. Blumhouse might not get an automatic pass right now. "Wolf Man" has, at best, suffered a "wait to stream it at home" fate. That doesn't help the bottom line in the meantime, nor does it help change the narrative for Blumhouse.

"Wolf Man" is in theaters now.