‘Insidious 5’ Earns $5 Million at Thursday Box Office

“Insidious” is a strange franchise in that it has often been overshadowed by James Wan’s other Patrick Wilson-starring supernatural haunting series (“The Conjuring”). Also, after two installments from Film District and another two from Comcast, “Insidious: The Red Door” comes courtesy of Sony. They are certainly pulling their weight if Thursday previews are any indication.

The Patrick Wilson-directed installment is the first present-tense sequel since “Insidious: Chapter 2” in 2013 as “Chapter 3” in 2015 and “The Last Key” in 2018 were prequels giving a spotlight to Lin Shaye’s ghostbuster. Absence has apparently made the heart grow fonder, as this one nabbed $5 million in Thursday previews. For reference, the last three “Insidious” films earned $5.18 million in Thursday previews *combined*.

The Sony/Screen Gems/Stag 6/Blumhouse entry, set a decade after “Insidious: Chapter 2” and serving as a quasi-legacy sequel for the main haunted Lambert family (namely Wilson, Rose Byrne and Ty Simpkins), pulled a better Thursday figure than “Halloween Kills” which earned $4.9 million in October of 2021 on the way to a $49 million opening weekend. One presumes that “Insidious 5” will be a lot more frontloaded, but even a 20% Thursday-to-weekend split (think the “Twilight Saga” sequels and the last few “Harry Potter” films) still gets this one to an in-line-with-expectations $25 million.

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Even a 15% split gets it to an eye-popping $33 million. “Insidious: The Last Key” opened with $27 million in January of 2018, while “Chapter 3” opened to $22 million in the summer of 2015 and “Chapter 2” opened with $40 million in September of 2013, but that was a long time ago and the hype for this chapter has been comparatively lower-key.

Maybe this is the weekend when James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s “Insidious,” which set the tone for 2010s horror swapping out the grindhouse horror of Wan and Whannell’s “Saw” for supernatural haunted house family melodrama, steps out from the shadows of “The Conjuring.” Or maybe it’s the only big-deal horror movie of the summer, which also means it might be leggy.

Either way, the “Insidious” series remains a prime example of “rip-off, don’t remake.” The third chapter opened weeks after the remake of “Poltergeist,” which most folks forgot even existed.

Lionsgate and Point Grey’s “Joy Ride” earned $1.1 million in previews, a promising start for the critically-acclaimed R-rated comedy. Adel Lim’s crowdpleaser premiered at SXSW and screened at this year’s CinemaCon.

While the Thursday figures are in the ballpark of “Girls Trip,” which earned $1.7 million in previews toward a $31 million opening weekend in July of 2017, few expected this lower-profile title to approach that benchmark. Still, in 2023, even a 10% split or an $11 million opening weekend would be a relative win for an original, R-rated comedy that may well leg out for weeks.

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