New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

The only nightmare turned out to be for viewers.

Kim Hollis: A Nightmare on Elm Street, the last major remaining major horror franchise to be rebooted, opened to $32.9 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?

Josh Spiegel: I think I'm supposed to say that this is a good result, in that the movie cost $30 million to make and made that much (and a bit more) this weekend. Certainly, it's not a flop. That said, the most recent Platinum Dunes remake (Friday the 13th) made just over $40 million in its opening weekend and just under $70 million overall. With Iron Man 2 and the rest of the summer movie season staring Nightmare in the face, I highly doubt this movie is going to make anything more than barely twice its opening weekend take, if that. And, yeah, this was a cheap enough movie and it didn't tank completely. But I'm pretty sure this result could've been better, what with the incessant marketing.

Brett Beach: As Josh noted, it will end up being profitable, but I think that's where the good news ends. The overwhelmingly negative critical response coupled with the deep Friday to Saturday to Sunday drops (indicative of negative word-of-mouth) suggests that this franchise reboot will end up getting the boot next weekend. A week ago I was still thinking about the possibility of a certain luster of quality allowing for a decent hold in the face of Iron Man 2. As someone who was looking forward to this more than most resurrected franchises of the past several years, my excitement has been considerably diminished - I have yet to see it - and it makes me a little sad. Halloween 3 is off the table for the time being, Friday the 13th Part 2 is dead for the time being and my guess is it will be a while before we see another Elm Street. Michael Bay must be stopped! Thank goodness there hasn't been any talk of that The Birds redo for a while.





Kim Hollis: I actually think that when you consider the fact that the awfulness of Friday the 13th actually damaged this one to a large degree, this result is pretty okay. I would have liked to think that it could open near where Jason Voorhees and friends did, but I was weirdly never feeling it for the updated Nightmare. Is there some money left on the table? Probably. Do Michael Bay and Co. care? Not likely. If they did, they would have brought Wes Craven and Robert Englund back. Instead, this is nothing more than a quick, transparent cash grab.

(P.S. I know I framed the question differently, but I'd posit that we still have one major horror franchise left unsullied - Evil Dead. So far, anyway.)

Michael Lynderey: I would say it's about what the studio should have expected, considering the reviews and reception this one ended up getting. I could certainly see a Freddy Krueger reboot really reaching the upper echelon of horror box office, but that would have required the kind of enthusiastic fan and critical reaction that this film just didn't get. So what they're left with is a decent hit, and maybe a sequel down the road. Fair enough. But if I was Platinum Dunes, I'd go to work on coming up with the Freddy Krueger of the 2010s - a new horror franchise that can inspire the same kind of fanbase and longevity that the Elm Street, Halloween, and Friday the 13th films did. And no remake is ever going to do that. Ever. That's just a fact.

Continued:       1       2