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After successfully rebooting The Invisible Man five years ago, director Leigh Whannell and Blumhouse would’ve been hoping for similar results with his latest film, Wolf Man, a reintroduction of another character from the Universal Monsters stable. The movie debuted on Friday to underwhelming box office results, on the back of mixed reviews and a poor response from audiences. Starring Christopher Abbott, who recently appeared in the critical and commercial dud Kraven the Hunter, Wolf Man continues Blumhouse’s partnership with Universal, but is shaping up to be one of their unusual misfires.
According to the polling platform CinemaScore, which evaluates how likely a person is to recommend a given film to others, Wolf Man earned a C- grade. While this might seem low by most standards, it’s fairly common for horror movies to receive poor CinemaScores. But a C- is worrying, even for a horror movie. It puts Wolf Man on par with recent horror films such as Infinity Pool, The Watchers, and Tarot, but below dozens of other titles. By comparison, Malignant, Immaculate, and Knock at the Cabin all earned a C CinemaScore, while Barbarian, Trap, and Heretic all earned a C+.
Among the rare horror films to do well on the platform are The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, A Quiet Place: Day One, and Speak No Evil, which earned B+ grades. A Quiet Place: Part II and Five Nights At Freddy’s, on the other hand, scored A- grades. The worst-rated horror film of the post-pandemic era is The Exorcism, which scored a D. On the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Wolf Man currently has a 53% approval rating. By comparison, Whannell’s The Invisible Man holds a stupendous 91% rating. That movie also earned a B+ CinemaScore.
Benicio del Toro Played the Character for Director Joe Johnston in 2010
In her review, Collider’s Emma Kiely described it as “a surprising let-down from Whannell, whose decades-long writing career has produced so many compelling characters.” Last year was particularly difficult for the horror genre, with a number of studio releases under-performing at the box office despite rave reviews from quite a few. However, a couple of auteur-driven titles such as Longlegs and Nosferatu managed to break through. Universal hasn’t quite cracked the formula for its Monsters; after discarding plans to produce a big-budget shared universe, the studio pivoted to director-driven genre films such as Abigail and Renfield. But both those movies under-performed as well. Produced on a reported budget of $25 million, Wolf Man is expected to earn around $12 million across the extended four-day MLK weekend.
Wolf Man is in theaters now. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Wolf Man follows Lawrence Talbot as he returns to his ancestral home following his brother’s disappearance. In the village nearby, a brutal beast is terrorizing the residents, and Lawrence finds himself entangled in the hunt for the creature. As the mystery unfolds, he faces enigmatic family ties and a haunting curse.
- Director
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Leigh Whannell
- Release Date
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January 15, 2025
- Runtime
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103 minutes
- Writers
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Leigh Whannell
, Rebecca Angelo
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