“Longlegs,” an occult-tinged horror mystery about an FBI agent on the trail of a serial killer, opened to a phenomenal $22.6 million, easily outgrossing “Fly Me to the Moon,” a $100 million dollar rom-com featuring two of Hollywood’s brightest stars.
To pull off that upset, “Longlegs” got a lift from some sensational reviews, as well as a creepy performance by Nicolas Cage. The film’s opening weekend results are a record-breaking debut for Neon, the indie distributor that did an outstanding job of generating word-of-mouth for “Longlegs” thanks to a viral marketing campaign. It was one that saw the studio create a “90s-style website” highlighting the gruesome crimes of its antagonist, as well as a phone number that people could call to hear a demented message from Cage. It’s a page right out of the playbooks of previous cult hits like “The Blair Witch Project,” where it worked so well that it essentially created a new paradigm for building buzz, and “Snakes on a Plane,” where a bunch of people got personalized recordings of Samuel L. Jackson ranting about air travel and reptiles. “Longlegs” was directed by Osgood Perkins and stars “It Follows” breakout Maika Monroe, both of whom just turbocharged their asking prices.
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What makes the result even more impressive is how little Neon shelled out to achieve its success. The movie was produced for under $10 million and the studio spent roughly the same amount to market and distribute “Longlegs.”
“This has been a really wild ride,” said Elissa Federoff, Neon’s chief distribution officer. “Working with the film’s creative team, we have been able to put together something really special. When you start with a film as wholly original as this one and you combine it with a fully fleshed out, bespoke marketing campaign, you can achieve something extraordinary.”
But even though “Longlegs” was the big story of the weekend, the top slot at the box office went to “Despicable Me 4,” which retained its box office crown after dominating moviegoing throughout the Fourth of July holiday. The animated comedy from Universal and Illumination earned $44.6 million in its second weekend of release, pushing its domestic total to $211.1 million. This week the companies announced they were making “Minions 3,” a “Despicable Me” spinoff, which is scheduled to hit theaters in 2027. The “Despicable Me” series recently topped $5 billion at the global box office, becoming the first animated franchise to hit that milestone.
As for “Fly Me to the Moon,” the film, featuring Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson as a NASA launch chief and a marketing guru who have a meet-cute against the backdrop of the Apollo 11 mission, had to settle for fifth place and a disappointing $10 million opening. For traditional studios, a debut like that, particularly for a movie with such a lavish price tag, would be a disaster. However, “Fly Me to the Moon” was financed by Apple Original Films, which believes that theatrical runs raise the profile of its movies before they launch on Apple TV+, its streaming service. Because these streaming platforms only selectively release viewing data (or spin it within an inch of its life), it’s hard to assess what success looks like for the films they make and if the company’s rationale is justified. It also helps that with a market cap of $3.5 trillion, Apple isn’t exactly cash-strapped.
That’s good news, because given its budget, “Fly Me to the Moon” is destined to lose money in its theatrical run. The hope here is that the film will show some endurance since the bulk of its audience is over the age of 45, a demographic that doesn’t always rush out on opening weekend. Sony Pictures distributed the film for Apple, having previously performed the same role for the tech giant on last fall’s historical epic, “Napoleon.” “Fly Me to the Moon,” which was directed by “Love, Simon’s” Greg Berlanti, earned solid reviews with many critics praising its fresh spin on the romantic comedy genre. Heading into the weekend, box office projections had “Fly Me to the Moon” debuting to $12 million, a figure it failed to hit, while “Longlegs” was targeting an opening in the high single digits, an overly conservative estimate that it easily eclipsed.
Falling just short of “Longlegs’s” opening results, “Inside Out 2” grabbed third place in its fifth weekend of release with $20.8 million. The Disney and Pixar sequel is the summer’s biggest hit, having earned $572.6 million domestically and $1.35 billion worldwide. It’s also the highest-grossing film in the history of Pixar, the storied animation house behind classics like “Up,” “The Incredibles” and “Toy Story.”
Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” came in fourth, earning $11.8 million to bring its domestic total to $116.2 million. This week the horror prequel crossed the $200 million mark at the worldwide box office.
A24’s “Sing Sing,” a prison drama that has been earning Oscar buzz for Colman Domingo and his co-star Clarence Maclin, impressed in limited release. The film earned $137,119 from four screens for a sterling $34,280 per-screen average. A nationwide expansion begins in August. Focus Features also debuted “Touch,” a romantic drama from “Everest” director Baltasar Kormákur, in 315 theaters, where it earned $470,000.
Last year at this time, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” topped the box office with $54.7 million, while “Sound of Freedom” continued to generate healthy returns. Ticket sales for the summer have lagged behind those of 2023, but hits like “Despicable Me 4” and “Inside Out 2” have helped narrow the gap. In May, revenues were off nearly 25%, but now grosses are down 16.2%. The hope is that some major new releases, such as “Twisters” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” both of which open this month, can help cut into the substantial deficit.
“We have been playing catch up all year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “But looking ahead, there are some big movies coming out in the next few weeks and that’s making me more bullish on the summer. We’re not in a great place, but it could have been a lot worse.”
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