‘Longlegs’ Scores Highest Opening Weekend for an Original Horror Movie This Year

Driven by rave reviews and one hell of a marketing campaign, NEON’s horror movie Longlegs has already proven to be a massive box office success story in the first few days of release.

NEON released Longlegs into 2,510 theaters here in the United States over the weekend, and the acclaimed horror movie scared up a hugely impressive $22.6 million at the box office!

That gives Longlegs the highest grossing opening weekend for an original horror movie this year, far surpassing the $11.7 million opening of Blumhouse’s Night Swim earlier this year.

It’s also the highest opening for a NEON release in the company’s history, blowing away the headline-worthy $5.3 million opening of their movie Immaculate earlier this year.

To put into perspective how big of a win this is, the $22.6 million opening of Longlegs far exceeds even the highest opening for an A24 horror movie – Hereditary with $13.5 million.

Additionally, Discussing Film notes that Longlegs had the “biggest opening for an independent horror film in a decade,” further establishing NEON as box office horror masters.

The film’s reported production budget was around $10 million, so Longlegs will already be reaching profitability in a matter of days. This is a MASSIVE win for the horror genre at large, and it’s quite frankly a game-changer for independent horror as well as online-targeted movie marketing as a whole. Everyone in Hollywood is taking notes right now, that’s for damn sure.

The serial killer horror movie marks the return of director Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel & Hansel). Nicolas Cage stars alongside Maika Monroe.

In the film, “FBI Agent Lee Harker (Monroe) is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer (Cage). As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.”

Alicia Witt (“The Walking Dead”) and Blair Underwood (“American Crime Story”) also star.