It was, sad to say, not a banner weekend at the box office overall. GOAT ($17 million) and Wuthering Heights ($14.2 million) were locked in a repeat battle from the prior weekend, with the two movies swapping places atop the charts this time around. The bigger issue is that two original genre movies fell well short of expectations as both A24’s darkly comedic thriller How to Make a Killing and 20th Century Studios’ serial killer flick Psycho Killer both disappointed in their debuts.
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Director John Patton Ford’s How to Make a Killing opened with just $3.5 million, failing to crack the top five. It came in behind Sam Raimi’s Send Help ($4.5 million), which is on its fourth weekend and has been killing it thus far. This isn’t what A24 was hoping for when they boarded this poignant thriller starring Glen Powell, one of Hollywood’s current it-boys.
Then there’s Psycho Killer, which opened to just $1.6 million, failing to even crack the top ten. This one hails from writer Andrew Kevin Walker, of Seven fame, with Georgian Campbell, of Barbarian fame, in the lead role. It had a lot going for it on paper but failed almost completely to connect with audiences or critics (more on that in a moment). Both of these movies are going to have to hope to find redemption on VOD and streaming, it seems.
How to Make a Killing centers on Beckett Redfellow (Powell) who is disowned at birth by his obscenely wealthy family. He decides to take things into his own hands, stopping at nothing to reclaim his inheritance, no matter how many relatives stand in his way.
Meanwhile, Psycho killer centers on a Kansas highway patrol officer (Campbell). Following the brutal murder of her husband, she sets out on a journey to track down the killer. As the hunt progresses, she comes to realize the man responsible (James Preston Rogers) is a sadistic serial killer. Gavin Polone directs.
So, what went wrong here? Well, to put it plainly, neither of these movies were met with a particularly warm reception. How to Make a Killing was met with a mixed response and A24 limited the marketing, sort of understanding that the audience was going to be limited. Psycho Killer, on the other hand, was met with near-universal dislike. It carries a lousy 11% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s tough for any studio to sell that.
Looking ahead, things are going to get bigger and better on the horror front in a hurry. Ghostface returns to burn it all down in Scream 7 this upcoming weekend, which figures to be a huge hit based on early projections. April brings with it Ready or Not 2: Here I come as well. So we have some heavy-hitters just around the corner.
How to Make a Killing and Psycho Killer are in theaters now.
