Box Office: ‘Invisible Man’ Materializes With Solid $26 Million Weekend

Dave McNary

6-8 minutes

Elisabeth Moss’ “The Invisible Man” scared up a solid $26 million opening weekend at 3,610 North American locations, estimates showed Saturday.
Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog,” which had led for the past two weekends, will finish second with about $15 million at 4,177 sites for a 17-day total of roughly $127 million. The sophomore frame of Disney-20th Century’s “Call of the Wild” is heading for third with $13 million at 3,865 venues and is nearing $46 million for its first 10 days.
Universal-Blumhouse’s “The Invisible Man” dominated Friday’s moviegoing with about $9.8 million and generated a B+ Cinemascore from opening-day patrons. The thriller is coming in above studio forecasts, which had been north of $20 million this weekend.
The film, made for a modest $7 million, is written and direct by Leigh Whannell, co-creator of the “Saw” franchise. Set in the San Francisco region, the movie is a modern take on Universal’s 1933 Claude Rains film, which was based on the 1897 H.G. Wells novel. Moss stars as a woman hunted by her abusive — and now invisible — boyfriend, played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen. After her boyfriend, an expert in optic tech, dies by suicide, nobody believes Moss’ character when she says she’s still being stalked by him.
The film also stars Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid and Harriet Dyer. Critics have praised the film, leading it to an 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes, a strong reception for a horror film.

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“The Invisible Man,” which cost only $7 million and opens in theaters on Feb. 28, is definitely not your father’s monster movie. For one, this updated version is laced with gore and violence, and it departs considerably from the original with a plot set in the present day. The story, which director Leigh Whannell wrote, centers on an enigmatic woman, Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), trying to escape from an abusive techno-rich boyfriend (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) who continues to stalk her when he devises a method to make himself invisible.

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“The Invisible Man” is also being released amid concerns about the worldwide coronavirus crisis. Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with Comscore, noted, “There is no better escape from the problems and stressors of the real world than a great horror movie, and ‘The Invisible Man’ is making audiences appear in bigger than expected numbers at the multiplex this weekend.”
Sony Pictures TV/Funimation’s anime movie “My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising” launched at $4.7 million at 1,260 locations, topping Sony’s seventh weekend of “Bad Boys for Life” with $4 million at 2,708 sites and Warner Bros.’ fourth frame of “Birds of Prey” with $3.8 million at 3,124 locations.
“Bad Boys for Life,” which has been a key factor in keeping the overall box office healthy in 2020, will wind up the weekend with a $197 million North American total.
A trio of titles were battling for seventh place at around $2.5 million: TruTV’s second weekend of reality comedy “Impractical Jokers: The Movie” at 1,820 sites; Universal’s 10th weekend of “1917 at 2,232 locations; and STX’s sophomore session of “Brahms: The Boy II” at 2,151 venues. “1917” will finish the weekend with more than $155 million in North America.

Fresh off the successful opening weekend of “The Invisible Man,” director Leigh Whannel has signed a first-look deal with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions for film and television. “Ten years ago, I walked into Jason Blum’s office thinking that I was having a general meeting with a producer who liked horror movies — little did I [...]
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Elisabeth Moss’ “The Invisible Man” scared up a solid $26 million opening weekend at 3,610 North American locations, estimates showed Saturday. Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog,” which had led for the past two weekends, will finish second with about $15 million at 4,177 sites for a 17-day total of roughly $127 million. The sophomore frame of [...]
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