The all-star up-and-coming cast of Lionsgate’s The Blackening earned a $6M domestic box office opening over the Juneteenth weekend. The federally recognized holiday provided for an additional day of box office grosses totaling $1.2M.
The Blackening rolled out to 1,775 theaters nationwide, a safe bet for Lionsgate who was up against Warner Bros.’ The Flash ($55M domestic opening at 4,234 theaters), Disney Studios’ Elemental ($29.6M domestic opening at 4,035 theaters), and Focus Features’ Asteroid City ($853,382 domestic opening in 6 theaters).
From the creative mind of Dewayne Perkins, who collaborated with Tracy Oliver on writing the screenplay, the film picked up $2.6M on Friday, $1.9M on Saturday, and $1.6M on Sunday. The film ranked No. 6 at the box office as it contended with previous releases, such as The Little Mermaid, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
The horror satire has been compared to the Scary Movie franchise originally curated by the Wayans Brothers. Released in 2000, Marlon and Shawn Wayans, along with Buddy Johnson, wrote and acted in the spoof film mocking the Scream horror franchise and later, the genre of horror films. Keenan Ivory Wayans directed the first two installments of the five film franchise before the baton was passed to director David Zucker.
Scary Movie made quite the impression, opening at $42.3M while only costing Miramar a $19M budget. In addition to its wide release, the pic was lucky enough to receive international distribution. By the time Scary Movie left theaters, it had earned a $278M worldwide cume. That’s more than the film it was spoofing — Scream managed to make $173M worldwide after its 1996 opening.
The Blackening didn’t quite reach those heights mainly because it didn’t release in as many theaters or receive an international rollout. However, the film’s concept was well received by audiences, who gave the film a fair score of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, while critics gave it 87%. Metascore ranked the film a passing grade of 70 out of 100.
The Blackening is in theaters now.
