'The Invisible Man' Gives 2020 Its First Horror Hit With $29M Opening [Box Office]

2020 finally has its first horror hit. Thanks to “The Invisible Man,” the drought of terrible horror films at the box office has ended and in pretty startling fashion.

According to estimates, Blumhouse has quickly rebounded from the recent “Fantasy Island” disappointment (though it still is in the top 10, barely, giving the production company two films in the list) to land itself a solid hit with Universal’s “The Invisible Man.” After three days, the Elisabeth Moss-starring film has pulled in $29 million. Not only is that the biggest horror opening since last year’s “IT: Chapter 2,” but it’s enough to put the $7 million-budgeted film on the fast track for profitability, which is what Blumhouse is known for.

And though a $29 million opening is great news, the film, written and directed by Leigh Whannell, is looking like it might have some long box office legs with a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 90% and an audience CinemaScore of ‘B+.’ Both of those stats are next-level when you’re talking about horror films, as these genre pics hardly ever appease both audiences and critics. And with next week seeing the opening of Pixar’s “Onward,” an animated feature aimed primarily at kids and families, “The Invisible Man” is poised to have another solid weekend ahead of it. In fact, the only real competition coming up is on March 13 when Blumhouse releases “The Hunt,” but it’s still unclear whether or not the controversial film will catch on with audiences in quite the way that Jason Blum feels it might.

Long story short, it seems as if Universal has injected new life into its Universal Monsters brand after the dismal debut of the Dark Universe idea in 2017’s “The Mummy.” And perhaps this new focus on individual films that don’t have to co-exist in a massive universe is the way the studio should move forward with these properties. Of course, Universal needs to make sure the films are scary too. (Note: Blumhouse seems to be super excited about Whannell’s film because the production company signed the filmmaker to an exclusive deal this weekend.)

As for the rest of the top 10, there wasn’t a whole lot of surprising action for sure. The only other big debut this past week was the Japanese animated film, “My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising.” Based on the popular anime series and manga, ‘Heroes Rising’ debuted in the top 5 domestically this weekend, earning an estimated $5 million. Making that debut actually more surprising is the fact that the film hit theaters on Wednesday, meaning that the Friday through Sunday totals weren’t even the opening days. For the 5-day debut, ‘My Hero Academia’ grossed $8.4 million.

“The Impractical Jokers: The Movie” rose even further after it’s surprising debut last week. Of course, that’s what happens when you add almost 1,500 locations. In its second weekend, the TruTV series-turned-film earned $3.5 million, putting its domestic total at $6.6 million. When you’re talking about a low-budget film without a huge marketing campaign, relying solely on word-of-mouth and brand recognition, this is a respectable number, for certain.

On the limited release front, after last weekend’s great debut, Autumn de Wilde’s Jane Austen adaptation, “Emma,” continued to impress, expanding to almost 100 theaters and earning a Per-Theater-Average of $12,062. This bodes very well for its wide opening next weekend. And it also means that de Wilde has turned her directorial debut into one of the more successful limited debuts of 2020, ensuring that even more attention will be paid for her follow-up feature, which is always good news for talented artists such as her.

Next week, “Onward” is expected to easily win the box office, as Pixar is one of the few studios able to almost guarantee a #1 debut nowadays. It’ll be interesting to see how much of a hit the rest of the top 10 feels from the animated kids film, as it not only is the first Pixar film since last year’s mammoth “Toy Story 4,” but also because it stars Chris Pratt and Tom Holland, two of the biggest names in Hollywood. Also, if Pixar isn’t your speed and you’d still like to make a trip to the multiplex (as you should!), there’s also wide openings for “Emma,” as well as Kelly Reichardt’s acclaimed A24 film “First Cow” and Ben Affleck’s sports drama “The Way Back.”

Here’s the full domestic top 10 for February 28 to March 1:

The Invisible Man – $29M (Debut)
Sonic the Hedgehog – $16M ($128M Overall)
The Call of the Wild – $13M ($46M)
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising – $5M ($8.4M)
Bad Boys for Life – $4.3M ($197M)
Birds of Prey – $4.1M ($79M)
Impractical Jokers: The Movie – $3.5M ($6.6M)
1917 – $2.67M ($156M)
Brahms: The Boy II – $2.63M ($9.8M)
Fantasy Island – $2.3M ($24M)