Horror fans have been going wild for the viciously violent slasher sequel that has had cinema-goers passing out, puking up and even having ambulances called, and it seems that the hype is showing no signs of abating with some unbelievable box office numbers being reported this week.
The film in question, Terrifier 2, the sequel to 2016's similarly gory Terrifier and directed by Damien Leone, was released on October 6 in the United States, and has been carving its way through impressive earnings every week since, despite having actually had the number of cinemas showing screenings cut at one point.
Variety now reports that the sequel has made over $7.6 million is ticket sales since its initial release - over 30 times its original budget, part of which was crowdfunded. The film's earnings are a historic victory and show no signs of slowing down despite being internationally on home media last week.
Even the people involved with the film have been shocked at its monstrous success, which many are putting down to the insane levels of word-of-mouth hype that came from early screenings.
“This has taken us all by surprise,” VP of sales and distribution at Iconic Releasing, Devon Canfield, tells Variety. “We dropped to 700 screens in [our second weekend], and we continued to increase our gross. That doesn’t happen when you lose locations.”
Not since 2007 found-footage supernatural scarefest Paranormal Activity - which made almost $200 million on a $230,000 budget - has a horror movie made such headlines for its earnings or the extreme reactions its provoked in audiences.
"It is very surreal," Damien Leone told Variety last week. "I had high expectations for this film and Art the Clown for quite some time, honestly. I created this character back in 2006. Once I made my second short film with him, I really believed I had something special, so I’ve been working so hard to get it to this point. I did not expect it to make this kind of splash or play in theaters, honestly, other than maybe a few arthouse theaters. To see it snowballing, the word of mouth growing, people getting sick and fainting and it really taking off, I never expected this or for it to make millions of dollars in theaters."
Terrifier 2 is in cinemas across the US and available on Blu Ray, DVD and various streaming platforms elsewhere
