Box Office: 'A Quiet Place: Day One' Aims to Jolt Hollywood Horror Back to Life

Big bucks for the 'Quiet Place' prequel and 'Alien Romulus' won't assuage fears that the scary movie is becoming as franchise-dependent as every other theatrical genre.

I got a kick out of Paramount’s recent cat-focused Quiet Place: Day One marketing, including the above-noted *literal* save-the-cat video, which more-or-less assures audiences that Frodo survives the prequel origin story carnage. I wish studios were more willing to show offbeat commercials (like that 1980s-style Upgrade trailer that sold me on the film) *in theaters,* but I digress.  The Michael Sarnoski-directed and Lupita Nyong’o-starring film is tracking to open big enough to be the year’s top-earning Hollywood horror film by the end of its opening weekend.

I haven’t seen the film yet since Paramount waited precisely one day after I left for my “vacation” (cough-Paddington Stare-cough)*, but I’ll be thrilled if the disingenuous “Go Woke to Go Broke” YouTube Troll Industrial Complex doesn’t get another bad-faith scalp to crow about. Nonetheless, is that good news for horror, which has been in a bit of a slump in 2024, or is it merely a symptom of a long-term problem? Simply put, is horror slowly going through the same “evolution” that rendered comedies and animated films only theatrically bankable with franchise or IP attachment?