Black Phone 2, the only bright spot in an American box office with a number of flops

Tron: Ares, the new Luca Guadagnino or Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen, nothing convinced American spectators to go to the cinema this weekend.

Is horror cinema the only genre capable of moving people in a dark room?

This is certainly one of the questions that will arise at the end of 2025. Because horror films continue to be a hit in cinemas. Or at least, they fully assume their status. After the success of Final Destination: Bloodlines Or Faintedit’s Blumhouse’s turn to take power with Black Phone 2.

The studio behind Purge And Five Nights at Freddy’s marks its big comeback this weekend with a sequel which starts at the top of the US box office, with 26 million dollars in revenue over three days in the United States. This is more than the original opus (23 million in 2021).

A very good sign for the franchise, knowing that the first Black Phone had grossed 67 million dollars across the Atlantic and 161 million worldwide for a modest budget of 18 million.

Scott Derrickson’s film, returning to directing, has seen its trend climb on social networks in recent days. Universal has successfully pulled out all the stops in this sector: the campaign around Black Phone 2 reached 307 million impressions, or 37% more than the genre average, taking full advantage of the bases of Mason Thames (2.3 M subscribers), Ethan Hawke (1.5 M) and Madeleine McGraw (900 K) who did the job well.

As a result, Black Phone 2 crush the poor Tron: Aresalready relegated to 2nd place, in free fall in the 2nd week (-66%) with only 11 million dollars over the weekend and 54.4 million cumulatively after two weeks. The Disney blockbuster, budgeted at 180 million, still does not cross the 100 million mark worldwide: a big flop.

It’s no better for Lionsgate and the other major release of the week: Good Fortunedespite its very cool casting – led by Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen – fails. Aziz Ansari’s biblical comedy did not convince with 6.2 million dollars for a cost equivalent to Black Phone 2 ($30 million). Despite good reviews, no one came and the film already knows that it will have difficulty being profitable.

Finally, the free fall of auteur cinema continues. After the failures of Derek Cianfrance (with Roofman), Darren Aronofsky (with Caught Steeling) or Kogonada (with A big Bold Beautiful Journey), it’s Luca Guadagnino who screws up with After the Hunt. The Amazon MGM thriller, starring Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield, collapsed during its expansion from 6 New York theaters (last week) to 1,238 theaters nationwide this week: just $1.6 million for a meager $1,200 per theater…