I’ve read some articles where they already call Priest a flop at the box office. Based on Thursday-midnight to Sunday-afternoon totals, Priest made an estimated $14,500,000 this weekend. Just this weekend. I don’t know how anyone can call this a flop when it hasn’t even been out a full week yet. Priest was produced on a budget of $60,000,000. In reality, its first three day’s total has already made back about 1/4 of its budget. Also, Priest took in $5,500,000 in foreign sales, bringing its opening weekend total to $20,000,000 combined, or 1/3 of its budget. Let’s check it out compared to the last big horror film to come out, Scream 4.
Scream 4 was released to theatres 4/15/2011. It was produced on a budget of $40,000,000. Opening weekend it made $18,700,000. So, not too far ahead of Priest’s opening, but opening weekend provided Scream 4 with almost half of its original budget. Sadly, Scream 4 has kind of nosed dived down the charts since then and has only pulled in about $37,000,000 domestically. Internationally, Scream 4 kicked ass. While I can’t find #’s for opening weekend, it has raked in over $50,000,000. Even if it took in $5,500,000 like Priest, it would still have made $24,200,000, over 1/2 its budget.
Although, Scream already has a huge following, audiences generally flock to 3D films like Priest.
I know it’s still way to early to tell, but who do you think will win the smackdown? Scream 4 vs Priest?
