‘Evil Dead Burn’ Just Suffered One of the Franchise’s Worst Openings in Decades

Horror has quietly been one of the best-performing genres at the box office this year, with scrappy original titles turning into genuine cultural moments and studios rushing to cash in on that momentum. That backdrop made the arrival of a new ‘Evil Dead‘ movie feel like one of the safer bets on the summer calendar.

‘Evil Dead Burn’ marks the sixth entry in the long-running franchise, directed by Sébastien Vaniček and produced by genre veterans Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. Tracking in the weeks leading up to release had the film pegged for as much as $25 million to $35 million domestically, numbers that would have set a new franchise record.

That optimism did not survive contact with the actual opening weekend. ‘Evil Dead Burn’ opened far below expectations, with estimates landing at just $13.7 million domestically from 3,004 theaters, a result that caught almost everyone in the industry off guard.

The number lands roughly $10 million behind 2023’s ‘Evil Dead Rise,’ which debuted to $24.5 million on its way to a $147 million worldwide total, and it also trails the $25.8 million opening of the franchise’s 2013 reboot. For a series that had been building momentum with each new installment, this marks its lowest opening weekend in more than three decades.

International audiences did not pick up much of the slack either, adding roughly $13.3 million for a combined worldwide opening of about $27 million. The film carries a modest production budget of around $20 million, so the outlook is not catastrophic, but a debut this far under projections is still a significant miss for Warner Bros. and New Line.

Part of the disappointment comes down to the sheer unpredictability of the specific weekend. Several factors were floated as possible culprits, from unusually pleasant weather across much of the country pulling people outdoors to the ongoing FIFA World Cup competing for attention, though no single explanation fully accounts for the shortfall.

‘Evil Dead Burn’ stars Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright and Hunter Doohan, with Vaniček stepping into the director’s chair after his spider horror debut caught Raimi’s attention. Audiences who did turn out gave the film a respectable B CinemaScore, suggesting the movie itself is not the problem so much as simply getting people into theaters.

That distinction matters because horror films are notoriously front-loaded, meaning openings like this one traditionally finish somewhere between two and three times the debut number by the end of their run. The bigger concern is timing, since Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ arrives in theaters next weekend and is expected to dominate multiplexes, leaving ‘Evil Dead Burn’ very little room to build momentum before its second weekend numbers likely take a steep hit.

Despite the rocky start, the franchise is not going anywhere. Warner Bros. has already greenlit a seventh installment, ‘Evil Dead Wrath,’ with writer-director Francis Galluppi attached and a 2028 release date already on the books, a sign the studio still sees long-term value in the property even after a shaky opening chapter.

‘Evil Dead Burn’ also shared its opening weekend with Disney’s live-action ‘Moana’ remake, another high-profile release that landed well below projections, making for one of the more uneven weekends at the box office this summer. Whether ‘Evil Dead Burn’ can recover through strong word of mouth in the days ahead remains to be seen.

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