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Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Horror's middle class is vanishing – and that's bad news for all film fans
Does no one want to watch people get butchered any more? Horror, long recognised as one of Hollywood's most reliable cash cows, is in a panic: few scary movies are breaking through financially in 2025, many more are cratering completely, and questions are being asked about the future of a genre that once seemed as durable as Jason Voorhees. Forget the death of the archetypal movie star: if sassy psycho-cyborg M3GAN can't open a movie, who can? Back in 2022, the first M3GAN – about an artificially intelligent doll with a bloodthirst – grossed $182m (£135m), including $78m of pure profit for its backers at Universal Pictures and the micro-budget horror studio Blumhouse, off a production budget of just $12m. Thanks to smart marketing, which turned its leading lady's incongruous dancefloor skills into a spooky meme, M3GAN ended up exemplifying the dream outcome of the modern studio horror film: low-cost, big-brain thrills with such inescapable dazzle that audiences couldn't not seek it out. Why, then, did last month's M3GAN 2.0 go so badly? In four weeks, the more action-oriented sequel has grossed a measly $38m worldwide, a result so mortifying that the head of Blumhouse put his hands up within days of its release and admitted to having totally missed the mark. M3GAN 2.0 isn't alone, either. This year has seen a staggering number of horror films die at the box office, among them Blumhouse's reboot of Wolf Man ($34m gross on a production budget of $20m), the Ayo Edebiri horror comedy Opus ($2m gross/$10m budget), Jenna Ortega vehicle Death of a Unicorn ($16m gross/$15m budget), the well-received adoption chiller Bring Her Back ($23m gross/$15m budget), and last week's revival of the Nineties hit I Know What You Did Last Summer, which opened to a flat $13m in the US. Yes, these films' production budgets are lean (though the extent of marketing budgets is largely kept under lock and key), and many of the above titles will ultimately break even once video-on-demand grosses are factored in – but none of their respective backers will be happy with what amounts to loose change. On the other end of the spectrum, meanwhile, are this year's handful of out-and-out horror smashes, most significantly the Michael B Jordan vampire film Sinners, which cost a reported $100m to make but has grossed $365m. There's also been Final Destination: Bloodlines ($285m and counting on a budget of $50m) and Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later, which has so far grossed $145m on a budget of $60m – not wildly profitable, by any means, but decent enough. So people are still going to see horror on the big screen, but – echoing the Western world as a whole – horror's middle class is evaporating. The genre seems to either go big or collapse entirely. Any kind of financial in-between is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. All this leaves a film such as next week's Weapons carrying undue levels of pressure. A missing-persons thriller starring Julia Garner and Josh Brolin, it revolves around the disappearance of a class of children in small-town USA, and serves as filmmaker Zach Cregger's follow-up to his 2022 sleeper hit Barbarian. Promotion for the film has been strong – lots of abstract and eerie imagery in trailers, and attempts at virality via the publishing of two hours of 'surveillance footage' from the night of the children's 'disappearance'. But the stakes feel particularly high. Weapons sparked a bidding war between rival studios when Cregger first unveiled his script, with Warner Bros so eager to get the up-and-comer on side that they coughed up a $38m budget for the film, and allowed him final cut. If Weapons underperforms, this kind of investment in a young, ambitious filmmaker's original ideas may become even rarer than it is already. Why this is bad for everyone is that, in the last decade or so, horror has been one of the few genres to wholeheartedly embrace fresh ideas and fresh voices. The likes of Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017), Coralie Fargeat's The Substance (2024), Ari Aster's Hereditary (2018) and Robert Eggers's The Witch (2015) proved that audiences will turn out in droves for intriguing new concepts, no matter how wild they might seem on paper – and in the process, an entire generation of buzzy new filmmakers developed fanbases, industry clout, and (relative) name recognition. Speaking to The Town podcast shortly after M3GAN 2.0 bombed, Blumhouse head Jason Blum suggested that there is simply too much horror being released for many films to break through, and that the cheap-to-produce movies that were Blumhouse's bread and butter (their biggest hits have included Get Out, Us, The Invisible Man and the Purge franchise) no longer cut it. 'We need to up the budgets,' he insisted. 'People need theatrical events.' Which is, I suppose, accurate. This year's most successful horror films had heavy promotional spends behind them, while even the most financially lucrative horrors of 2024 – meaning the low-cost, high-return likes of The Substance and Oz Perkins's Silence of the Lambs pastiche Longlegs – were transformed into must-see 'events' via relentless and effective marketing. But just as important is the actual quality of material on offer, with far too many modern horror movies settling for tedious mining of intellectual property and repetitive premises (Knives Out and Midsommar have created an unfortunate cottage industry of star-studded, eat-the-rich, religious-cult disappointments). Blumhouse have been particularly guilty of this over the last 18 months, tossing out a raft of movies that felt as if they were formed backwards from an already unimpressive elevator pitch: Night Swim (haunted pool!); AfrAId (haunted Alexa device!); House of Spoils (Ariana DeBose!). Things may, however, be looking up. As much as it pains me to slander a film that made smart use of Nineties stalwarts Freddie Prinze Jr and Jennifer Love Hewitt, it is something of a relief that I Know What You Did Last Summer couldn't get people in cinema seats last week. A largely serviceable but poorly directed slasher pastiche, the film may have lifted the story beats and faces from the 1997 original, but it failed at the things that truly matter: character development, suspense, memorable chase sequences. It seemed to prove that, when it comes to horror, box-office success in 2025 requires far more than just dusting off some old IP and hoping for the best. Hollywood does have a knack for taking all the wrong lessons from its success stories. (Just look at how Barbie's gargantuan box office has led to the development of loads of other movies about toys.) But wouldn't it be lovely if the triumph of Sinners sparked an influx of expensive, original horror movies moving forward – and not, well, Sinners 2. 'Weapons' is released 8 August
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How Happy Gilmore 2 subtly honors Adam Sandler's late co-star Cameron Boyce
Adam Sandler managed to sneak in a subtle, yet heartwarming, tribute to his late Grown Ups co-star Cameron Boyce in the new Happy Gilmore sequel. Happy Gilmore 2, out now on Netflix, follows Sandler's titular retired golfer, Happy Gilmore, as he returns to the sport in order to pay for his daughter to attend a Parisian ballet school. It comes nearly 30 years after the original 1996 classic sports comedy. In one scene, Happy is seen walking up to a golf course check-in booth with a bag of clubs on his shoulder. As he nears the desk, the attendants inside are watching what appears to be an episode of Disney Channel's sitcom Jessie. The screen quickly flashes to show Boyce's character Luke Ross, whom he played throughout the show's entire 2011 to 2015 run. The brief nod to Boyce — who starred as Sandler's on-screen son in the 2010 family comedy Grown Ups and its 2013 sequel before his sudden death in 2019 — has left fans overcome with emotion. 'Adam Sandler honoring Cameron Boyce in Happy Gilmore 2 melts my heart,' one said on X, while a second added: 'Excuse me while I sob.' A third commented: 'Adam Sandler subtly including Cameron Boyce in this scene from #HappyGilmore2 hits different.' 'Happy Gilmore 2 was great,' another praised. 'The honoring of Cameron Boyce was such a cute and awesome Easter egg. Bottom right of the screen they're watching them on TV. Adam Sandler you killed it. Family is very happy.' Someone else on TikTok wrote that the tribute 'is hurting and healing my heart at the same time.' Boyce was only 20 when he died after experiencing a seizure in his sleep. At the time, his family released a statement, explaining the seizure 'was a result of an ongoing medical condition for which he was being treated.' 'The world is now undoubtedly without one of its brightest lights, but his spirit will live on through the kindness and compassion of all who knew and loved him. We are utterly heartbroken,' they added. Sandler was among many celebrities to honor Boyce after his death, posting on X: 'Loved that kid. Cared so much about his family. Cared so much about the world. Thank you, Cameron, for all you gave to us. So much more was on the way. All our hearts are broken.' Boyce isn't the only celebrity to make a surprise cameo in the new movie. Dozens of other cameo appearances from professional golfers, athletes and celebrities — some of which were announced when the film was in production — are also featured. Happy Gilmore 2 is streaming now on Netflix.
CBS News
29 minutes ago
- CBS News
Possible shooting at Encino home sparks outrage amongst neighbors in midst of crime wave
Just two weeks after "American Idol" producer Robin Kaye and her husband were shot and killed in their Encino home, another possible shooting next door has outraged neighbors who are struggling to feel safe in the midst of a concerning wave of crime affecting their neighborhood. Hundreds of people flooded the White Oak Avenue home for a party that had to be broken up by police late Saturday night, shown in cell phone video captured by neighbors. They say that the house has been a constant issue, and despite complaints, nothing has yet been done. "This party house would've been shut down in Beverly Hills, would've been shut down in Burbank, but in LA you can break the law and there's no consequences," said Rob Glushon, the president of the Encino Property Owners Association. "We're very supportive of LAPD, but honestly they need to be tougher. This is an example of when something gets out of control because the law doesn't get enforced when the problem starts." Related: "American Idol" executive and husband killed with their own gun, LA County DA says Police were called to the home for reports of a disturbance, but they said there was no evidence of a shooting upon investigation. Community members say that the homeowner has been cited several times in the past for hosting loud and unruly parties, but they want the city attorney to file misdemeanor criminal charges against him, as they believe he's been renting the property out for parties. It's just the latest issue in a growing trend that has seen the neighborhood plagued by break-ins, burglaries, robberies and murder. A community meeting days after the deadly double-shooting brought hundreds of concerned neighbors in front of law enforcement and city leaders who said changes were being made. Hours later, two homes were targeted in attempted burglaries, including one at a home belonging to former "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Teddi Mellencamp. Neighbors say that that the party house is emblematic of Encino's problems in dealing with lawlessness. "That just kind of talks to the issue that we have in this whole community, where there's so many awful things going on, the burglaries and party houses and even murders," said Roy Nwaisser, president of the Encino Neighborhood Council. "It really does break my heart." Related: Suspect in killings of "American Idol" executive Robin Kaye and her husband charged with murder, burglary In recent days, neighbors have banded together to hire armed security patrols and take weapons training. "We are gathered together to learn and practice and exercise how to protect yourself inside your house and how to use guns," said one woman who wished not to be identified. "Most people I know here, they purchase the guns right now." Their new steps come at the same time that LAPD says they've increased patrols in the area, included officers on horseback. In coming days, residents will join a zoom meeting with Mayor Karen Bass, their Los Angeles City Council representative and more LAPD officers to give a list of demands.
