(NEXSTAR) – In an eerie twist that’s sure to please the publicity team behind “Late Night With the Devil,” the new horror movie earned $666,666 at the box office on Sunday, Variety reported.
The film, which hit theaters March 22, earned a total of $2.8 million during its entire opening weekend. In doing so, it also gave IFC Films its biggest opening weekend ever, shattering the previous record of $826,775 earned during the opening of 2022’s “Watcher” despite debuting on roughly the same number of screens, according to Variety.
It’s worth nothing that Box Office Mojo, an online resource for box-office data, did not yet account for Sunday’s earnings for “Late Night With the Devil” on its site as of Monday. (Deadline published estimates that the film earned slightly more than Variety reported — $733,000 on Sunday — though representatives for IFC Films were not immediately available to confirm the box-office tally for Nexstar.)
The found footage-style horror film stars David Dastmalchian (“The Suicide Squad,” “Oppenheimer”) as Jack Delroy, the host of a fictional 1970s talk show.
“However, ratings for the show have plummeted since the tragic death of Jack’s beloved wife,” reads a plot description at the film’s official site. “Desperate to turn his fortunes around, on October 31st, 1977, Jack plans a Halloween special like no other — unaware he is about to unleash evil into the living rooms of America.”
As of Monday morning, the movie had earned favorable “certified fresh” rating of 97% at Rotten Tomatoes. The film fared slightly worse by the standards at MetaCritic, with a score of 72 (which still indicated “generally favorable” reviews from critics).
“Late Night With the Devil” opened sixth at the box office over the weekend behind “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire ($45 million), “Dune: Part Two ($18 million), “Kung Fu Panda 4” ($17 million), “Immaculate” ($5.4 million) and “Arthur the King” ($4.4 million), per IMDb.
Still, Scott Shooman the head of the AMC Film Group — the parent company of IFC Films — told Deadline that the opening numbers for “Late Night With the Devil” were encouraging.
“’Late Night With The Devil’ continues to showcase that there is still potential for highly reviewed, intelligent auteur films in movie theaters across all genres,” Shooman said.
