Lionsgate’s horror-comedy The Blackening was released into theaters for the long Juneteenth weekend, and Lionsgate is surely celebrating the film’s box office performance today.
Playing in 1,775 theaters across the country, The Blackening‘s 5-day total thus far is an estimated $7 million, which includes nearly $1 million from Thursday night previews.
The Blackening opened in sixth place at the crowded box office in its debut weekend, behind much larger studio blockbusters including The Flash, Elemental, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and The Little Mermaid. The good news for The Blackening is that the film’s production budget was just $5 million, which should allow for Lionsgate to start making box office profits real soon. The low budget horror-comedy was set up for success, whereas a mega budget film like DC’s The Flash was set up to fail.
That’s the beauty of the horror genre, as we’ve seen time and time again.
The Blackening, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain’t no motherf****** game.
Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like A Man, Barbershop) and co-written by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem) and Dewayne Perkins (“The Amber Ruffin Show,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), The Blackening skewers genre tropes and poses the sardonic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?
Joe Lipsett wrote in his 4-star TIFF review, “While the film isn’t Scream levels of meta, The Blackening fuses social commentary about the Black experience in contemporary America with slasher conventions in a highly entertaining fashion.”
“The humour is successful, the violence is fun and frequently cheeky, and the characters are loveable,” Joe’s review for BD continues. “In a slasher film, that’s saying a lot!”
One of the runaway hits out of the Toronto International Film Festival, The Blackening stars Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, Sinqua Walls, Grace Byers, X Mayo, Melvin Gregg, Jermaine Fowler, Yvonne Orji, and Jay Pharoah.
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