Box office preview: ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ launches spooky season with sequel to ’70s horror classic

Edward Douglas
·5 min read
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There’s been a shocking amount of horror movies released in August and September. Now that it’s October, it’s going to seem far more appropriate, with the month starting off with a doozie. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

Way back in 1973, William Peter Blatty‘s 1971 novel, “The Exorcist,” was adapted into a movie by the late William Friedkin, becoming a huge theatrical phenomenon that is still thought of as one of the scariest horror movies ever made. It introduced many Americans to the idea of possession and exorcism, making household names of Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn, both who received Oscar nominations. The movie received 10 bids total, winning for Blatty’s screenplay and the sound.

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Fifty years later and filmmaker David Gordon Green has followed his mostly successful “Halloween” sequel trilogy with “The Exorcist: Believer,” the first of three movies in the works. (The second movie, “The Exorcist: Deceiver,” has already been planned and dated for April 18, 2025.) The movie stars Leslie Odom Jr. and Ann Dowd, with Burstyn returning from the original movie, maybe in a slightly different capacity than how Jamie Lee Curtis returned for Green’s “Halloween” trilogy.

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The original “Exorcist” was followed by a few poorly received sequels, including 1977’s “Exorcist II: The Heretic,” directed by the legendary John Boorman, and “The Exorcist III” in 1990, directed by Blatty himself. Other than a recent 2016-17 television series, the last attempt to bring “The Exorcist” to theaters was the Warner Bros. prequel, “Exorcist: The Beginning,” released in 2004 to $18 million on its way to $41.8 million domestic. Originally, the movie was directed by another ’70s cinema vet, Paul Schrader, but Warner Bros. decided to bring on Renny Harlin (“Cliffhanger”) to finish it, although Schrader’s version was released a year later as “Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist” with very little fanfare.

The good thing going for “The Exorcist: Believer” is that its trailer has been in front of just about every single horror movie released over the past two months, with some of them (like “The Nun II”) having been seen by a lot of horror fans. The sequel looks suitably creepy and disturbing, which could help introduce new and younger moviegoers to Blatty’s work.

It’s hard to see this opening as big as Green’s first “Halloween” reboot did in 2018, with its $76.2 million launch, as it became the highest-grossing movie in that horror franchise with $159.4 million domestic and $255.4 million worldwide. The two sequels to it didn’t do as well. Even so, “The Exorcist: Believer” should be good for an opening in the $30 to 35 million range, since younger moviegoers are in the right mindset for horror right now. It will have to do most of its business this weekend before Taylor Swift‘s “Eras Tour” concert movie opens next weekend.

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With such a high profile horror film hitting theaters, we’ll have to see how it affects last week’s “Saw X” as well as Warners’ “The Nun II.” It is October, and spooky season is in full effect, so there may be room for three horror movies this weekend.

There are a ton of limited releases coming out on Friday, too. “Borat” helmer Larry Charles directs the A24 R-rated musical-comedy “Dicks: The Musical,” a twist on the Disney classic “The Parent Trap,” starring Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson as business rivals who learn they’re identical twins, deciding to switch places to get their parents (Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally) to reunite. The movie also stars Bowen Yang and Megan Thee Stallion, and it will get a limited release this weekend before expanding nationwide on October 20.

“Lion” director Garth Davis returns with “Foe,” adapting Iain Reid‘s 2018 novel about a couple living in the midwest, played by Oscar nominees Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, who are visited by a mysterious stranger (Aaron Pierre from “The Underground Railroad”), whose presence disrupts their lives. Davis’ film recently premiered at the 61st New York Film Festival, but it’s been getting thrashed by critics, so who knows if it will be going very wide, especially being released by Amazon.

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Hitting select cities before its own Prime Video debut on October 13 is “The Burial,” the new film directed by Maggie Betts (“Novitiate”), starring Tommy Lee Jones as funeral home-owner Jeremiah O’Keefe, who calls upon a charismatic lawyer, played by Jamie Foxx, to help safe his family business after a deal with a larger corporation goes wrong. Based on a true story, it also stars Jurnee Smollett, Mamoudou Athie, Pamela Reed,Bill Camp and Alan Ruck, having received great reviews out of the Toronto International Film Festival last month.

Filmmaker Kitty Green (“The Assistant”) reunites with her three-time Emmy-winning star, Julia Garner, for “The Royal Hotel,” in which Garner and Jessica Hewick play US backpackers Hanna and Liv, who take a job in a remote Australian pub only to have to deal with unruly locals. It will be released by NEON in select cities after playing at a few of the September festivals.

Undaunted by the higher-profile horror film, IFC Films is releasing Demián Rugna‘s Spanish-language horror film “When Evil Lurks” from Argentina, which deals with two brothers contending with a man infected by a demon.

Check back on Sunday to see how all the movies do in theaters.

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