Will 'The Invisible Man' Become a Box Office Hit No One Sees Coming?

Universal

While this weekend’s theatrical wide release slate is small as studios take a breather ahead of a very busy March, Universal will try to reel in horror buffs with Leigh Whannell’s new take on “The Invisible Man.”

And with a lack of major early horror releases and strong reviews, this Blumhouse production might deliver an opening weekend that no one will see coming.

Right now, trackers project a $24-27 million opening for “The Invisible Man,” with Universal projecting a $20 million start against a $7 million production budget. Anything north of $20 million would be the highest opening weekend for a horror film since the $91 million opening of “It: Chapter Two” six months ago.

Also Read: How 'The Invisible Man' Aims to Reset Universal's Approach to Monster Movies After Big-Budget Misfires

But some analysts who spoke with TheWrap say that strong early reviews could help push the film’s start north of $30 million. After the film’s premiere on Monday, “The Invisible Man” currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 91% with 32 reviews logged and more reviews to come tomorrow after press screenings. Reviews have praised Elisabeth Moss’ lead performance and the film’s ability to deliver plenty of scares combined with a smart narrative about how women can be manipulated and abused in harmful relationships.

That mix of thought-provoking themes, thrilling narrative, and a low budget has been a very lucrative one for Universal, as proven by the success of Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” and “Us.” If it works again with “The Invisible Man,” the studio may have the key to modernizing its classic horror monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein, something they attempted with the Dark Universe project three years ago that was shuttered after “The Mummy” was poorly received. For more on how ‘The Invisible Man” is a sign of how Universal is learning from their successes and failures, check out this week’s Box Office Report on WrapPro.

“The Invisible Man” stars Moss as a woman who inherits an enormous fortune after running away from her abusive scientist husband, who reportedly committed suicide. But she soon discovers that not only is her husband not dead, but he has found a way to become invisible. Now she must find a way to fight off an unseen enemy even as he tries to destroy her life piece by piece. Leigh Whannell wrote and directed the film, which also stars Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Aldis Hodge and Storm Reid.

The 9 Most Divisive Horror Films of the Decade, From 'Human Centipede' to 'mother!' (Photos)

How many of these horror films have you seen?
"Human Centipede" (2009)

Listen ... any movie about a deranged doctor stitching three people together, mouth to anus, will cause outrage. The film's general consensus on Rotten Tomatoes read, "Grotesque, visceral and hard to (ahem) swallow, this surgical horror doesn't quite earn its stripes because the gross-outs overwhelm and devalue everything else." It's just gross.
Bounty Films
"Human Centipede 2" (2011)

This sequel continues the grotesque experiment from the first, but also includes graphic rape and sadism. It was so horrifying, in fact, that the British Board of Film Classification deemed it as an infringement of the Obscene Publications Act and was liable to cause real harm to the public, according to The Guardian.
Bounty Films
"Slender Man" (2016)

Screen Gems released a film in 2016 about the Slender Man, a fictional creature created in an online forum. It generated controversy as the movie was released just two years after the Waukesha stabbing, in which two 12-year-old girls stabbed a third, claiming the stabbing was part of the steps to becoming a proxy for the Slender Man. The film was accused of capitalizing off the incident, and the father of perpetrator Anissa Weier calling the film "absurd."
Screen Gems
"The Green Inferno" (2013)

The film follows a group of college activists who go to the Amazon Forest to help protect a tribe from deforestation. However, upon arriving they discover the tribe is cannibalistic. Not only was the film, directed by Eli Roth, criticized by Survival International for the film's stigmas against indigenous people and reinforcing colonialism, but many reviews said the film was extremely gory and disturbing.
Open Road Films
"Jeepers Creepers 3" (2017)

The film sparked outrage mainly because of its plot over child molestation and the fact that in 1988, director Victor Salva was incarcerated for sexual abuse of a 12-year-old child and possession of child pornography.
Screen Media
"A Serbian Film" (2010)

This film has been one of the most controversial films of the decade, given it deals with rape, incest, pedophilia, necrophilia and, um, "newborn porn." According to IGN, the film was investigated for criminality in Serbia and other countries, and was also investigated for its violent and sexual content. According to Rolling Stone, Spain, Norway, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand have banned the film, and other countries have tried everything in their power to stop people from watching it.
Jinga Films
"mother!" (2017)

"mother!" quickly became the most controversial movie of 2017 due to its brutal finale. No spoiler alert as the movie is now two years old; the Poet's adoring fans accidentally kill -- and then eat -- Jennifer Lawrence's character's newborn. Paramount had to release a statement following the backlash, saying the film was "intended to be bold," and that it's "okay if some people don't like it."
TIFF
"The Hunt" (2019)

This movie never even saw the light of day. It was scheduled to be released on Sept. 27, but following the Dayton and El Paso mass shootings in August, Universal shelved the film. Test screenings found that audiences were uncomfortable with the politics expressed in the film; reports said the film follows 12 people that wake up in a clearing, being hunted by the rich elite.
Blumhouse/Universal
"The House That Jack Built" (2018)

Lars von Trier's film was so divisive that it caused walkouts at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The film follows a serial killer (Matt Dillon), who mutilates and strangles his victims. Viewers were also outraged over a scene where a duckling is mutilated. Critics at the festival even said the director "had gone too far this time."

According to IndieWire, the film also received sanctions from the MPAA because the film's distributor, IFC, opened an unrated director's cut of the film over 100 cities without getting permission.
Cannes Film Festival