Some Horror Movies Don’t Belong in the Summer
Chad Collins
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Something weird is happening at the box office. Like the deeply buried secrets at its core, Samuel Bodin’s Cobweb, which opened opposite Barbie and Oppenheimer at the box office last month, has no domestic numbers to report. Cobweb did release—social media is flooded with accounts of horror fans seeking it out, sometimes an hour away—so at least notionally, there should be numbers there. Whatever those would be, however, there’s little doubt there’d be no cause for Lionsgate to celebrate. Pitted against the summer’s two big juggernauts, audiences have to wonder why, of all weekends, Lionsgate chose that one.
And Cobweb isn’t the only casualty. Disney’s Haunted Mansion, a sufficiently cute gateway horror spook show, opened to a dismal $33 million this past weekend. Against a budget of $150 million, that’s hardly a drop of ectoplasm in the paranormal bucket. The numbers might look better if distributors made the right call and stopped releasing seasonal horror movies in the middle of summer.
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It’s not a contemporary phenomenon, either. For time immemorial, studios have taken what should be seasonal releases and crammed them into the summer months, hoping some sweat-glistened counter-programming might cultivate a path to success. It has not. Famously, Kenny Ortega’s Hocus Pocus, released in July 1993, lost Disney an estimated $16.5 million during its original theatrical run. Its cult status wouldn’t arrive until years later. That might not have been the case had Disney taken what is one of the most seminal Halloween movies of this generation and released it—catch this—around Halloween.
Cobweb is similarly poised to achieve cult status. It is arguably this year’s Barbarian, a movie I’m desperate to see again now that I know where it’s going. It’s a twisted, violent, fairy tale odyssey anchored by a phenomenal cast and Bodin’s exquisite, Gothic direction. It’s a shame it’ll take a home video release—at least—for audiences to finally experience the year’s definitive Halloween movie. Not just in feeling, either. Bodin’s Cobweb is very much predicated around the holiday. Releasing in July is the equivalent of dressing in heavy costume and trick-or-treating under the blazing sun until it sets at 9 PM. Doesn’t work, does it?
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Evidence spans back decades. Rick Rosenthal’s Halloween: Resurrection broke franchise tradition, setting off a decade of Halloween movies inexplicably released in August. Rob Zombie’s Halloween and Halloween H20 performed well, though Resurrection and Zombie’s Halloween II report two of the franchise’s lowest returns to date. Maybe audiences don’t want Michael Myers in the middle of summer. I certainly don’t.
Spiral, released in May 2021, is the lowest-grossing release in the series, pulling an estimated $40 million worldwide. Saw VI, the next lowest-grossing release in the series, had a worldwide cume of $68 million. Spiral released in May. Every previous entry released in October. The forthcoming Saw X is planned for September 29th. Releasing a Saw movie in May, a movie famous for its inimitable tagline “If it’s Halloween, it must be Saw,” is incredulous decision-making. May isn’t for Saw. Halloween is.
The Conjuring 2 could have gone the Black Christmas or Wolf Creek route and served as some indelible counter-programming in December. James Wan himself has said it’s a Christmas movie. Monster House, released in July 2006, is bonafide gateway horror, yet its dismal box office returns are no doubt attributed to a summer release. The Haunting, Phantasm II, and several other examples have all been summer horror casualties.
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Conversely, both The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Meg 2: The Trench feel like summer horror movies. Which is to say, horror can certainly release in the summer. It would be a drab, boring few months were it not to. Instead, studios and distributors would be wise to pay attention to the thematic intent of their horror releases. If they’re seasonal offerings, most notably Halloween movies, why not release them in the month that makes the most sense?
I’m not alleging to know more than the studios themselves. Maybe there is some secret wisdom they yield that I don’t. It’s a possibility, but the blank slate of Cobweb’s box office numbers and Haunted Mansion’s regression into obscurity tell a different story. No different than either Barbie or Oppenheimer, both were promising releases from two filmmakers at the top of their game. That they’ve been resigned to financial catastrophes is a shame, and it could have been avoided.
Now, there’s a chance both might just as easily have failed if released in a few months. There’s no certain way of knowing, but my gut tells me that wouldn’t have been the case. If the summer’s box office is any indication, audiences aren’t only back, but they’re back with intent. They want fresh ideas from novel voices. If the release schedule runs counter to that intent, then what’s the point of it all anyway?
Categorized:Editorials
