Cinedigm Corp (NASDAQ:CIDM) said its release of the movie Terrifier 2 climbed 82% in week-over-week box office performance in just three weeks, bringing its cumulative box office to more than US $5.5 million.
Due to this strong box office and positive word of mouth, Cinedigm said Terrifier 2 will nearly double its release to more than 1,500 movie screens for the Halloween weekend, including Canadian cinemas this Friday.
Los Angeles-based Cinedigm noted the horror film’s per-screen revenue increased 58% week over week, ranking it fourth for all wide releases.
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Cinedigm president Erick Opeka said genre-defining films like Terrifier 2 come around once in a generation.
“The audiences are seeing what we saw when we saw Damien Leone’s film for the first time: the new face of horror. Our model of connecting enthusiastic, die-hard audiences with uncompromising, fan-centric creators is clearly working, and we look forward to scaring and shocking more audiences in the weeks, months and years to come,” Opeka said in a statement.
The indie slasher film from writer-director Damien Leone brought back David Howard Thornton as demonic killer Art the Clown, and introduced Lauren LaVera as Sienna, who is being hailed as the next Final Girl. Samantha Scaffidi reprises her role as Victoria Heyes, and horror icon Felissa Rose and professional wrestler Chris Jericho also appeared, according to Cinedigm.
Following his demise in the first film, a sinister presence brought Art the Clown back to life to rain terror on the residents of Miles County. He returned to the unassuming town on Halloween night and set his sights on fresh prey: a teenage girl and her little brother, portrayed by LaVera and Elliott Fullam, the company said.
Brad Miska, managing director of horror-focused news site Bloody Disgusting, said Terrifier 2’s fan base is driving the box office smash.
“With very limited marketing dollars, this was a grassroots, word-of-mouth campaign, and done for the love of the film and the genre. This is a unique moment in horror history, a terrifying Cinderella story you could say, in which we unleashed an uncut 138-minute slasher epic into cinemas across the country,” said Miska.
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