How Neon Made ‘Longlegs’ Sexy At Box Office With Distrib’s Record Opening Of $22M+, Best Start For Original Horror Pic YTD – Sunday Update

UPDATED, Sunday AM: Illumination/Universal’s Despicable Me 4 won the weekend with $44.6 million , but Neon’s Nicolas Cage-Maika Monroe starrer Longlegs stole the headlines, delivering the best original horror opening year-to-date and the best-ever start for the Tom Quinn-run 7-year old distribution company with $22.6M .

‘Longlegs’ Review: Nicolas Cage Manages To Top His Twisted Legacy With The Most Extreme & Creepy Role Of His Career

That’s an excellent win for original movies, a much-needed boost for the horror genre, and a big win for the arthouse circuit, which we hear had several sellouts over the weekend with theaters adding showtimes. Overall, per ComScore, it’s the seventh highest-grossing weekend of the year at $129M for all titles.

We told you at the onset of the summer that Longlegs could surprise , with Neon executing a deft marketing campaign with clever clips; overall, a campaign that hid Nicolas Cage. The amazing coup here with Neon is how they racked up a ton of money off a very high single-digit P&A spend — all digital, sans TV. In addition, Dave Caplan’s C2 financed Longlegs for under $10M. Sources verify this is true.

Neon posted 11 videos of Longlegs on YouTube in the last 90 days, amounting to 30 million views, according to Tubular Labs. Consider that major studios, seeing how horror worked in the post-pandemic space, flooded marquees with titles, each one paling one after the other YTD with $8M-$11M openings apiece. However, patterns can be broken and new norms created, and that’s Longlegs.

Exclaimed David Herrin, founder of entertainment intelligence group Quorum, which saw Longlegs coming, “The genre was meant for re-invention and this was a shot in the arm for it. Neon was so super smart in their marketing, not revealing everything and not showing Nicolas Cage.”

As Neon’s press note so appropriately says this AM: “Not since The Blair Witch Project launched 25 years ago on the same weekend in July has there been an independent genre film that out-projected, out-performed, and over-indexed so wildly that it seemed to the industry it ‘came out of nowhere.'” Amen. Blair Witch Project in the third weekend of its wide break opened to $29.2M, and finaled at $140.5M, becoming the feather in then-distributor Artisan’s cap. Artisan would eventually get absorbed by Lionsgate, which has been racking its head on how to reinvent that franchise (it has yet to hit the heights of the original).

Longlegs reps the best lead-driven project for Monroe at the domestic box office (not counting Independence Day: Resurgence at $41M). Know that horror fans know her from It Follows , the cult horror movie that Quinn handled when he was at Radius. Neon has the sequel to that movie, They Follow, with Monroe returning with filmmaker David Robert Mitchell.

For Cage, once a mega box office-opening star, this is his first live-action movie since 2011’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance to open north of $20M.

“As the summer season of ’24 continues to surprise and amaze with as unpredictable a slate as any in popcorn blockbuster season history, Nicolas Cage finds himself in the company of PG-rated family film blockbusters, a PG-13 horror franchise film, and a space race romance all making their mark in one the most eclectic summer season lineups in industry history,” said Comscore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

Interesting tidbit is how Neon launched this movie sans a zinger festival ala SXSW, which their previous horror movie Immaculate starring Sydney Sweeney had, debuting to a previous Neon-weekend-high of $5.3M. Essentially, Immaculate had a three-month campaign and required a festival boost to get it out there. Longlegs by comparison had been trailering on every horror movie since January. That’s unheard of for an indie horror movie to have such a long-lead drumroll.

Other stunts executed by Neon for Longlegs, in addition to the bloody nun-chaperoned under-17 Alamo Brooklyn screening on Friday, included a spooky serial killer-coded ad in the Seattle Times .

By the way, Longlegs didn’t have the Imax screens this weekend; DM4 did, with $2.9M and a running stateside cume for the large-format exhibitor on the animated fourthquel of $13.8M.

Beamed Neon distribution boss Elissa Federoff this AM, “This is a non-IP film, a piece of original cinema from Osgood Perkins. The campaign was built with creativity and imagination and launched in January with the reveal of the first cryptic teasers.  Over the last six months, it built momentum and garnered enthusiasm. It’s a testament to what a unique cinematic experience will do for an audience if it’s something they haven’t seen before.  We built a movement around this film and they rallied behind it.”

What’s next for Neon? In the wake of the pre-pandemic Parasite , Longlegs further bolsters its brand to the hipster 18-34 moviegoing audience. It has another edgy, critically acclaimed horror title (81% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) in Cuckoo starring Hunter Schafer for August 9. Success begets success. Every film sets up the next.

The same lessons here with Longlegs when it comes to horror movies extend to superhero movies as well. Many talk about superhero fatigue, but it’s not really about that. It’s about giving audiences something fresh and new, and intriguing in both genres, and not feathered fishes, which unfortunately is what Apple Original Films’ Fly Me to the Moon is as a 1960s period fake-moon-landing rom-com. It came in under its $12M projection this weekend at $10M , and not a dollar over, for this starry Channing Tatum-Scarlett Johansson team-up.

Before spending $100M, Apple, know that history always teaches us something about the future: There was a movie like this before, and it didn’t make much, and it didn’t cost much at $35M: Peyton Reed’s 2003 Ewan McGregor-Renée Zellweger romantic comedy Down With Love, which was set in 1962 New York and followed a playboy journalist and a feminist advice author. 20th Century Fox didn’t know what to do with the movie either, opening it in one theater in its first weekend to $45,000 before going wide at 2,123 theaters with a $7M three-day total during early May. True, Fly Me to the Moon was higher, but not by much. Down With Love ended its run at $20.3M domestic.

As the saying goes, there isn’t bad box office, just bad budgets. The only difference between Down With Love and Fly Me to the Moon is that the former had a C+ CinemaScore to the latter’s A-. Sony’s hope is that Fly Me to the Moon, as the only rare rom-com gem in the marketplace, will find a female audience.

Nonetheless, as I talk out of both sides of my mouth: No one is knocking for Apple, as a streamer, being in the exhibition space, particularly not theater owners. Let’s give praise for an extra $10M in the marketplace as we recoup from the ramifications of the strikes. It’s just that for a tech company that is fearless about spending cash to make a movie, and brilliant about predicting consumer wants before they know it when it comes to tech, there has to be an equal a sophistication in developing an event movie that will stampede moviegoers to cinemas — just like iPhone buyers line up at Apple Stores on day one of a new edition.

Studio reported estimates:

1.) Despicable Me 4 (Uni) 4,449 (+21) theaters, Fri $13.6M (-50%) Sat $17.4M Sun $13.4M 3-day $44.6M (-40%), Total $211.1M /Wk 2

2.) Longlegs (NEON) 2,510 theatres, Fri $10M, Sat $7.2M Sun $5.4M 3-day $22.6M /Wk 1

3.) Inside Out 2 (Dis) 3,815 (+55) theaters Fri $6.1M (-42%) $8.1M Sun $6.4M 3-day $20.7M (-32%) Total $572.5M /Wk 5

4.) A Quiet Place: Day One (Par) 3,378 (-310) theaters, Fri $3.6M (-49%) Sat $4.6M Sun $3.5M 3-day $11.8M (-43%), Total $116.2M /Wk 3

5.) Fly Me to the Moon (App/Sony) 3,356 locations, Fri $4.4M, Sat $3M Sun $2.5M 3-day $10M /Wk 1

6.) Bad Boys Ride or Die (Sony) 2,200 theaters, Fri $1.2M (-43%) Sat $1.8M Sun $1.3M 3-day $4.4M (-33%), Total $184.8M /Wk 6

7.) Horizon (WB) 2,587 (-747) theaters, Fri $675K Sat $980K Sun $785K 3-day $2.44M (-54%), Total $27M /Wk 3

8.) MaXXXine (A24) 2,370 (-80) theaters, Fri $696K, Sat $786K Sun $589K 3-day $2.07M (-69%) Total $11.7M /Wk 2

9.) Indian 2 (FDN) 525 thaeters, Fri $1.3M Sat $363K Sun $225K 3-day $1.96M /Wk 1

10.) Sound of Hope (Angel) Fri $409K Sat $547K Sun $383K 3-day $1.34M (-56%), Total $9.76M /Wk 2

11.) Lion King (re) 1,300 theaters, Fri $418K, Sat $357K Sun $301K 3-day $1.08M /Wk 1

UPDATE SATURDAY AM: A great solid mid-July weekend for the industry with Illumination/Universal’s Despicable Me 4 doing $44M in weekend 2, Neon wowing with Longlegs still on track for a record $20M-$23M opening in 2nd for Neon after a $10M Saturday, and Sony appealing to female moviegoers with Apple’s Fly Me to the Moon with $10M in 5th after a $4.4M Friday.

This spells for an overall Friday-Sunday of $128.1M for all titles, and though -9% off from a year ago, hell, it’s a weekend north of $100M. The industry will take it after the feature conveyor belt was disrupted by the strikes.

Horror fans are being hard on Longlegs despite the movie’s overperformance with a C+ CinemaScore and 70% positive/3 stars on PostTrak. Still horror can be resilient to audience exits. The sudden success of Longlegs is reminiscent of what Paramount did with Smile — the movie came out of nowhere and no one saw it coming; that pic opening to $22.6M after an $8.2M Friday and B- CinemaScore. Smile continued to grin all the way to $105.9M. Given the opening weekend result for Longlegs, it’s fantastic when you consider that Neon spent a majority on digital, not TV, on a thrifty P&A spend in the high single digits, I understand. In regards to marketing dollars to box office, that’s not an easy fest to pull off. Usually the biggest spend wins.

In Comscore/Screen Engine exits, moviegoers at 49% said they went to Longlegs because it was a horror film, 39% because it looked fun, 26% for Nicolas Cage and 14% for Maika Monroe. Fifty-four percent of the audience said that they bought their tickets same-day indicating big walk-up with another huge turnout by Hispanic and Latino audiences at 27%, 52% Caucasian, 10% Black and 7% Asian. Immense turnout by 18-34 at 71%. Largely male leaning at 57% with the biggest demo being men over 25 at 38%, and the biggest demo being 25-34 year olds at 37%. The Oz Perkins directed/written feature is playing best in the West and Midwest regions with the AMC Burbank in LA the best venue in the nation for the movie with $51K-plus in gross so far.

RelishMix reports that the social media universe on Longlegs across TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube counts 132.6M which is 38% over Fly Me to the Moon ‘s 96.2M. “The overall intensity on the campaign is running 13% higher for awareness, engagement, cast activation and conversation,” adds RelishMix.

RelishMix says Neon’s clever campaign spurred “enthusiasm all around from horror lovers mixed with passion for Nicolas Cage. ‘Loved the creepy vibe and it’s a horror film that genuinely looks like it’s trying to be something way more than just a jump-scare fest,’ said one moviegoer online, while another exclaimed ‘Builds curiosity and excitement and fear of the unknown.’  Some have likened their interest in the film to past horror hits such as The Silence of the Lambs , The Shining , and Alien . Says another ‘Maika Monroe never disappoints in a horror movie,’ ‘YES! This looks eerie, scary, & raw. Plus Nick Cage?? No brainer I gotta see it,’ and ‘Nicolas Cage is a living legend. One of the last true movie stars.’ Lastly, some have confidence in the studio behind it, saying, ‘I try to catch most movies from Neon – they produce good stuff.'”

Despite the low start, Fly Me to the Moon gets an A- CinemaScore, 4 1/2 stars on PostTrak and 86% positive. That bodes well for legging out. While Apple is losing money here in box office to the rom-com’s exorbitant $100M cost, Sony has hopes to leg this 52% skewing female movie out, much in the same way they did with Anyone But You (despite the fact that movie was in overdrive due to the holiday multiple opening at $6M and finaling at $88.3M). A third of those who bought tickets to Fly Me to the Moon came for Scarlett Johansson per PostTrak, while 25% attended due to Channing Tatum. Interesting stat to note is that of those polled by PostTrak, 32% are AppleTV+ subscribers. Those are the ones who’ll have the opportunity to watch it again when it hits their iPhones and Apple TVs. Of those who watched Fly Me to the Moon, 43% said that if they see it again, they want a free way to download or stream the movie versus 27% who said they’d watch in a theater again, 23% who aren’t interested in seeing the pic again, and 12% who’d rent it digitally on PVOD, iTunes or Prime.

Only 34% of the audience were between 18-34, with close to half over 45 and the largest demo being over 55 at 29%. Diversity demos were 67% Caucasian, 14% Latino and Hispanic, 6% Black, and 10% Asian on the Greg Berlanti directed, Rose Gilroy scripted movie. The pic played the best in the West, Mountain, South Central & South with the AMC Lincoln Square in NYC the pic’s top grossing theatre stateside at $18k.

‘Fly Me To The Moon’ Review: Scarlett Johansson And Channing Tatum Fire On All Cylinders In A Screwy Space-Race Rom-Com

Also busting into the top 10 is S. Shankar’s action thriller Indian 2 at 525 theaters which follows Senapathy, an ex-freedom fighter turned vigilante who fights against corruption. Senapathy returns to the country to aid a young man who has been exposing corrupt politicians in the country through videos on the internet. The pic did around $1.2M yesterday for a forecasted 3-day of $2.4M in 7th place. Good numbers, we hear.

Here’s the trailer for Indian 2 :

Disney also has the re-release of 1994’s The Lion King at 1,330 theaters which did OK with $418K on Friday on its way to $1.4M in 10th.

The chart:

1.) Despicable Me 4 (Uni) 4,449 (+21) theaters, Fri $13.6M (-50%) 3-day $44M (-41%), Total $210.4M /Wk 2

2.) Longlegs (NEON) 2,510 theatres, Fri $10M , 3-day $20M-$23M /Wk 1

3.) Inside Out 2 (Dis) 3,815 (+55) theaters Fri $6.1M (-42%) 3-day $20M (-34%) Total $571.8M /Wk 5

4.) A Quiet Place: Day One (Par) 3,378 (-310) theaters, Fri $3.6M (-49%) 3-day $11.5M (-44%), Total $115.9M /Wk 3

5.) Fly Me to the Moon (App/Sony) 3,356 locations, Fri $4.4M , 3-day $10M /Wk 1

6.) Bad Boys Ride or Die (Sony) 2,200 theaters, Fri $1.2M (-43%), 3-day $4.4M (-33%), Total $184.8M /Wk 6

7.) Indian 2 (FDN) 525 thaeters, Fri $1.2M , 3-day $2.4M /Wk 1

8.) MaXXXine (A24) 2,370 (-80) theaters, Fri $696K , 3-day $2.2M (-66%) Total $11.9M /Wk 2

9.) Horizon (WB) 2,587 (-747) theaters, Fri $720K (-60%) 3-day $2M (-62%), Total $26.5M /Wk 3

10.) Lion King (re) 1,300 theaters, Fri $418K , 3-day $1.4M /Wk 1

UPDATE FRIDAY MIDDAY: Wow. Neon is seeing its biggest opening weekend in the company’s seven-year history as Oz Perkins’ Longlegs is looking at a $9M-$10M Friday and opening weekend between $20M-$23M at 2,510 theaters.

While that’s a solid No. 2 behind Universal/Illumination’s second weekend of Despicable Me 4 ($12.5M Friday, $41M 3-day, -45% for a running total of $207.4M) at 4,449 theaters, it’s also the best original horror opening of 2024; many of those films opened in the $8M-$11M range since January. Even if Longlegs falls back to the high-teens, it’s still a great unexpected result from Neon, which had its previous best weekend opening in March for Sydney Sweeney’s Immaculate ($5.3M).

Important to note on DM4 that with today’s business, the fourthquel will put the Despicable Me/Minions franchise across the $5 billion mark worldwide, becoming the first animated feature series to ever hit that milestone.

RELATED: The Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Box Office: Photo Gallery

Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 booked at 3,815 venues is looking at a fifth Friday of $6M, for a fifth weekend between $19M-$20M , -36%, for a running total of $571.8M at the high end by Sunday.

Fourth goes to Paramount’s third weekend of A Quiet Place: Day One at 3,378 theaters with a third Friday of $3.8M , 3-day of $12.1M (-41%), and running total by Sunday of $116.5M .

Apple Original Films’ new rom-com Fly Me to the Moon is eyeing $4M today with a shot at $10M-$11M in fifth place at 3,356 theaters via Sony. Its grosses are gaining, with momentum seen in the South Central, West and Mountain regions. The Greg Berlanti-directed title starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum was made for $100M before P&A. The biggest opening for an Apple Original Film remains last year’s Killers of the Flower Moon at $23.2M, which was an amazing feat as the three-hour historical drama opened sans stars’ promotions during the actors strike.

FRIDAY AM UPDATE, AFTER EXCLUSIVE: Neon’s Longlegs hit $3M on Thursday night, according to Neon. As we mentioned, this is a record for the specialty distributor. Quorum’s Friday-morning tracking is predicting that the Oz Perkins horror film could do $14M-$17M , while the Sony-distributed Apple movie Fly Me to the Moon is eyeing $12M-$15M . Quorum is seeing “an engaged and growing core” for Longlegs.

That said, Thursday night’s audience registered a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes and 3 stars on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak, with critical score settling at 90% certified fresh, which indicates a divide between reviewers and audiences. We’ll see how that plays out. Longlegs attendance Thursday night counted 57% guys, with the 18-34 demo showing up at 72%. Here’s the trailer:

Fly Me to the Moon , starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum grossed $875K Thursday off showtimes started at 3 p.m. As we told you, it’s not a Thursday night movie that packs in moviegoers. It’s a Friday night and Saturday movie. However, 51% males/49% females showed and enjoyed it at 4½ stars and 88% positive on PostTrak. Females gave it a 92% grade. Reviews are at 65% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Here is the rest of the top 5 pics in regular release:

1. Despicable Me 4 (Uni) 4,428 theaters Thu $9.1M (-11% from Wednesday), Wk $118.8M , Total $166.4M /Wk 1

2. Inside Out 2 (Dis) 3,760 theaters Thu $3.9M (-10%) Wk $48M , Total $551.8M /Wk 4

3. A Quiet Place: Day One (Par) 3,688 theaters, Thu $2.1M (-12%) Wk $31M , Total $104.4M /Wk 2

4. Bad Boys: Ride or Die (Sony) 2,644 theaters, Thu $679K (-8%) Wk $9.6M , Total $180.4M /Wk 5

5. MaXXXine (A24) 2,450 theaters, Thu $521K (-22%), Wk $9.3M /Wk 1

EXCLUSIVE: Everyone in distribution loves a surprise, and spurring a lot of chatter throughout is the $2.5M-$3M in Thursday previews for Neon’s serial killer horror movie Longlegs , starring Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe. This is per box office sources tonight.

For the specialty distributor with a penchant Palme d’Or-winning movies , that’s the best take ever in Thursday night previews for one of its movies, outstripping the sub-$1M Thursday for the Sydney Sweeney genre pic Immaculate, which became its highest-opening title ever at the domestic B.O. with $5.3M last spring.

If Longlegs stays firm, it could bode for a $10M-$15M opening; some even are buzzing that it could best Apple Original Film/Sony’s Scarlett Johansson-Channing Tatum rom-com, Fly Me to the Moon , which was projected to do $12M. That movie currently is seeing $800K-$900K after shows that began at 3 p.m. However, Fly Me to the Moon isn’t a Thursday night crowd type of movie, more Friday night and Saturday. Originally, Longlegs was projected to do in the high single digits.

In Longlegs, Monroe plays an FBI agent who is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes unexpected turns, revealing evidence of the occult. She learns of a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again. Cage also stars, but Neon has kept him out of all the ad materials. The distrib rolled out cryptic clips leading into the first trailer. Get a load of the latest stunt for the movie: Teaming with Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn, Neon gave teens the chance to see Longlegs on Friday night sans parents. Their chaperones at the cinema? Don’t worry, Mom and Dad, there will be bloody nuns on hand to make sure nothing happens to them.

Critics love writer-director Oz Perkins’ Longlegs, making it 92% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Zoë Kravitz Says Audiences Were "Not Ready" For Movie's OG Title 'Pussy Island': "We're Not There Yet"