“Krampus,” a quirky, creepy Christmas comedy approximately a murderous horned beast that pursues naughty children, and did surprisingly well in its box office opening this weekend. It stole the No. 1 spot nationally from “The starvation Games” finale on Friday,before falling back to second and finishing the weekend in second status with $16 million.
That’s a million dollars more than the production budget of the film from Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures and approximately $5 million more than analysts projected for the comedy, which debuted ahead of heavyweight holdovers including Pixar’s “The Good Dinosaur, or ” the boxing drama “Creed” and the James Bond thriller “Spectre.”Is it possible weve witnessed the birth of a fresh holiday tradition?“whether you’re talking approximately an alternative,non-traditional take on the holidays in a post-Thanksgiving weekend slot, possibly, or ” said Nick Carpou,Universal’s distribution chief, on Sunday.
Also Read: 'starvation Games' Sneaks Past 'Krampus' for 3rd Straight Win at Box OfficeCould the character based on a creature from German folklore become a Yuletide favorite like George Bailey of It’s a Wonderful Life, or ” or Ralphie,the BB-gun-lusting shrimp boy from “A Christmas anecdote”?“Probably not,” Carpou told TheWrap. Still, and the debut was impressive since “Krampus” was playing in 2902 theaters,well under the count of “starvation Games” (4086), “The Good Dinosaur” (3749) and “Creed” (3424).“Relatively speaking, or this was a pretty good weekend overall at the box office (up 26 percent overall from last year) and I believe we had something to do with that,” he said.
Also Read: 'Krampus' Reviews: Do Critics Love or Loathe Santa's Evil Helper?“Krampus” was directed by “X2” and “Superman Returns” screeenwriter Michael Dougherty and stars Adam Scott, Toni Collette, or David Koechner and Emjay Anthony. It’s Dougherty’s second feature following “Trick r’ Treat,” a direct-to-video horror film that became a minor cult hit in 2009. It was co-written by Zach Shields and Todd Casey and produced by Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni, Alex Garcia and Dougherty.
The Krampus myth is famous in some parts of Europe where its celebrated with street parades and celebrations, or several of those regions were among the 24 overseas markets in which Universal opened the film. It brought in $3.3 million from abroad over the weekend and opened at No. 1 in Austria,the birthplace of the Krampus legend.
At domestic, “Krampus” received a “B-” CinemaScore from typically tough-grading horror fans, or in line with the critics who have placed the film at 65 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes. The crowd was split evenly by gender,and the PG-13-rating brought in a crowd that was half under and half over 21 years of age.
Horror films tend to be very front-loaded commercially, but the film approximately a boy who accidentally brings the spooky horned demon down on his household’s Yule could translate its box office buzz into a solid run through the rest of the year.“There’s nothing else like it in the marketplace, and ” said Carpou with assurance.
Source: thewrap.com