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Buy / Wait / Rent: October 2018 Blu-Ray Releases

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We sift through the new release heap so you don’t have to!

Welcome to Horror News Network’s Buy / Wait / Rent, a monthly article devoted to the most highly-anticipated horror releases on blu-ray. Here you will find the best home video releases of each month, along with our opinion on whether each film is a must-own on the first day of release, something you should wait to buy until it goes on sale, or something you’re better off renting for a one-time watch. And now, on to the notable new releases of October 2018! read more

‘The Meg’ Still Swimming Upstream; ‘Happytime Murders’ Leaves No One Smiling at Box Office

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Who knew that that dang giant shark would have legs (or fins I guess) at the box office!  The gonzo shark movie finished second at the weekend box office for the second straight week, netting another $13 million for a grand total of $105 million on the domestic front.

The budget for The Meg was rather high (north of $130 million) and this fact lead many box office prognosticators to doubt the film’s profit potential, but due to a shrewd marketing campaign, little competition during the month of August, and Megalodon-sized return overseas, The Meg is one of the biggest surprises of the year so far. read more

‘The Meg’ Chomps on the Competition; ‘Slender Man’ Thin at Weekend Box Office

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The Meg surprised a lot of experts and journalists this weekend by making more than double its estimated take at the weekend box office, finishing with an estimated $44.5 million dollars.

The monster shark tale not only won the domestic box office this weekend, but it also performed very strongly overseas with an additional $97 million in ticket sales.    The high international number is not as surprising as the domestic victory however, as the film was a joint venture between Warner Brothers, China Media Capital and TVB, so it was a film that was designed to appeal to the overseas market (particularly Asian ticket buyers). read more

‘The Darkest Minds’ Stays in the Shadows at Box Office; ‘The First Purge’ Becomes the Series Most Profitable Entry

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The adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s popular YA science fiction book series The Darkest Minds had a hard time keeping the lights on at this weekend’s box office, as the potential franchise starter landed with a thud, only managing an estimated $5.8 million and an eighth place debut.

The trailers hyped the connections to Stranger Things‘ Dan Cohen and Shawn Levy (who served as producers for the film), but that couldn’t entice fans into the theater this weekend.  With an reported budget of $34 million dollars before promotional costs, the film’s worldwide total should allow the film to break even or earn a small profit, but it looks like Hollywood still hasn’t learned that YA novel series are not the place to “mine gold” anymore (and the 18% score at Rotten Tomatoes certainly didn’t help). read more

Sony Assures Fans that ‘Slender Man’ Movie Will Really Debut in August with New Trailer

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Okay… I guess this is really happening! HNN’s Nick Banks has been chronicling the many release dates of the upcoming Slender Man movie for nearly a year now, but it seems like Sony Pictures intends to finally stick with their planned theatrical debut on August 10th. The studio just released a new trailer that’s chock full of jump scares, creepy computer screens, and a slide that says, “ONLY IN THEATERS AUGUST 10” (Perhaps the caps lock is meant to inspire confidence…): read more

Sony Moves ‘Slender Man’ Release Date Once Again; Will Now Open on August 10

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The trials and tribulations of Sony’s Slender Man have been well-documented by Horror News Network, but just when it looked like the maligned film would disappear from the release schedule entirely, Slender Man has been pushed up two weeks to August 10.

The film will now go head-to-head with another PG-13 horror film debuting on the same date, The Meg.  Screens are at a premium this time of year, so don’t be surprised  if the film gets “limited engagement status” and a minimal screen count. read more

‘Slender Man’ Likely to Be Delayed Due to Clash Between Sony Pictures and Production Team

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Variety is reporting that Sony’s upcoming film Slender Man is experiencing some major troubles behind the scenes which will almost certainly delay the film.

In Variety’s exclusive report, it appears that the “… producers are having heated disagreements about the release strategy with Sony Pictures, the studio that is supposed to debut the film in August. Sony sees the film as a low-budget, Blumhouse-style release, according to two insiders, while the producers, a group that includes William Sherak and James Vanderbilt, have more confidence in the movie. The are pushing for the picture to unspool across more screens and also want a bigger marketing push, which will cost more money than Sony is willing to spend.” read more

Horror News Network’s Summer 2018 Horror Movie Preview

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In recent years, studios have loaded up their summer release schedules with a wide range of horror films.  This was never more apparent than in 2016 when Lights Out, Don’t Breathe, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Purge: Election Year,  and the Conjuring 2 made large sums of cash (for the most part on austere budgets) and helped to shore up an otherwise lackluster summer for movies.  2017’s list of summer horror films were not as notable, with the two exceptions being the surprise hit  47 Meters Down and the prequel Annabelle Creation. read more

‘Deadpool 2’ Chases ‘Slender Man’ into August

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Have you ever wondered what scares Slender Man?  Turns out that Deadpool does!

In a move that surprised no one, Sony Pictures has decided to move their upcoming horror film Slender Man from its original release date in May to August 24.

This move may actually benefit the film, as late August has provided a fertile ground for horror films in the last few years (Don’t Breathe, Annabelle: Creation).  It was essential that Sony moved this film from mid-May as it would have debuted on the very same weekend as Deadpool 2 in an already over saturated marketplace for blockbusters, with Avengers Infinity War and the young Han Solo film both being released in May.  Deadpool 2 moved into the May 18 slot two weeks ago (after Fox shook up their X-Men universe titles, shipping New Mutants from an April 2018 release to February of 2019). read more

‘New Mutants’ Release Date Moved to 2019

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If you were looking forward to seeing Marvel’s New Mutants this April, I hope you can open a portal to the future like the young magic-user Illyanna Rasputin.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Josh Boone’s film is moving from April 13, 2018 to Feb. 22, 2019.    Supposedly, “Insiders say one reason for the change is for the studio to avoid having an overlap with X-Men movies in certain overseas marketplaces, where Mutants and Deadpool 2 would have been in theaters at the same time.” read more