Horror has largely anchored the 2026 box office up to this point in the year but we had our first legitimate, all hands on deck blockbuster with Project Hail Mary. The Ryan Gosling-led sci-fi flick opened to an estimated $80.5 million domestically, taking the lion’s share of attention over the weekend. However, horror wasn’t snuffed out entirely as Ready or Not 2: Here I Come still managed to hold its own against the stiff competition.
See also: READY OR NOT 2 Directors On Picking Up Right Where They Left Off
The long-awaited sequel from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett opened to $9.1 million. That placed it fourth on the charts also behind Dhurandhar The Revenge ($9.5 million) and Hoppers ($18 million). Again, a pretty crowded weekend. But it’s all relative at the box office and Ready or Not 2 carries a reported $14 million production budget, meaning it did just fine for itself, working as counter-programming against the blockbuster fare and family-friendly offerings.
Overseas, the sequel added $2.8 million for an $11.9 million global start. It’s worth noting that the movie has a lot of countries left to roll out in over the next several weeks, so the international numbers should pick up as we go along.
The original Ready or Not opened in August 2019 and was an under-the-radar hit. It opened to $8 million en route to nearly $58 million worldwide. The audience for it has also grown a great deal on streaming in recent years. Hence, Disney’s 20th Century Studios finally pulled the trigger on a follow-up. By keeping the budget low, even if it doesn’t purely profit in theaters, it will turn a profit when all’s said and done easily in light of how it’s performing already.
Read or Not 2 picks up with Grace (Samara Weaving) moments after surviving her hellish night with the Le Domas family. She discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game, with her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) at her side this time around. The cast includes Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings) and the great David Cronenberg, among others.
Scream 7 had been leading the pack the past couple of frames so far as horror goes, with Scream 8 now all but assured. Scream 7 added another $4.3 million domestically over the weekend and is coming up on $200 million worldwide, standing firmly as the highest-grossing entry in the franchise to date.
Looking ahead, this Friday sees the release of the Zazie Beetz-led They Will Kill You, the witchy IFC flick Forbidden Fruits and the re-release of The Mummy Returns. Things pick up in a big, bad way after that as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie rolls into town, which figures to be one of the biggest movies of the year overall.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is in theaters now.
