Jordan Peele continues to prove himself as a filmmaker who comes up with original ideas that score big at the box office. The opening weekend for Nope abducted $44 million at the domestic box office ahead of it flying to the rest of the world on August 12. While slightly lower than its predictions of an opening between $45 to $60 million, a million off shows the film is off to a great start for a successful theatrical run.
The sci-fi horror film is the writer-director’s most ambitious film, both in terms of idea and budget, costing $68 million. To compare, Get Out cost $4.5 million, and the budget of Us being $20 million. His debut into horror with Get Out opened with $33.4 million, and Us earned $71.1 million.
Nope opening weekend shows sign of a strong start for Jordan Peele’s latest
The highest-grossing horror film of the year so far was Scream. Comparing its opening weekend to Nope, the meta slasher stacked enough bodies for $30 million and ended at $140 million worldwide. When it comes to other major horror releases this year, X opened with $4 million, leading to its final amount hitting $14 million. The adaption of the short story The Black Phone rang up $23 million in its first weekend and grossed $130 million globally.
Jordan Peele’s take on a UFO movie followed a brother, OJ (Daniel Kaluuya), and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer), who deal with the sudden death of their father. As OJ deals with the ranch as he tries to scrape by to keep it alive, he and his sister realize something is in the clouds. They try to get the first clear footage of a UFO. Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea (The OA), and Michael Wincott (24: Live Another Day) also star.
Peele produces, writes, and directs. Ian Cooper and David Torres also produce. Robert Graf, Daniel F. Larson, and Win Rosenfeld executive produce.
Looking at his past work and the competition released this year, the Nope opening weekend shows it can catch up with this year’s spooky champion, Scream. The film is in theaters domestically and will come to international territories on August 12.
