HOLLYWOOD—The most engrossing part of Jordan Peele’s gripping movies is not the bizarre and nerve-wracking events depicted on the screen, or how horrifying the plot is written, but how stupendous these films consistently earn box office hits, what with its highly unconventional but undeniably gripping storytelling.
The comedian turned writer-director’s newest long-awaited horror film, Nope, has cut the Domestic Box Office to maintain his winning streak. According to Exhibitor Relations, the film earned $44 million, snapping a two-week streak for Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which earned $22.1 million during its third weekend in theaters. But despite its success in other countries, the film’s release date in many parts of the world, including important markets such as the United Kingdom, France, South Korea, and Australia, has been pushed back until mid-August.
Peele’s films are box office juggernauts. If you’re a fan of his thriller films, eagerly anticipating for the upcoming release of his latest sci-fi thriller in Philippine theaters, here’s a refresher on his two box office successes, that easily placed him atop the pantheon of thriller gods-in-the-making.
Get Out
You’ll be surprised you didn’t eat your popcorn as this mind-bending movie will catch your attention right away. The movie starts when Chris and his girlfriend, Rose, have reached the dating milestone of meeting the parents, so she invites him to a weekend vacation upstate with her parents, Missy and Dean.
Chris initially interprets the family’s overly accommodating behavior as worried attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial romance, but as the weekend progresses, a succession of progressively horrifying revelations leads him to a truth he could never have anticipated. You can never look at a cup of tea the same way again after this cult classic.
It’s as uncommon for a horror picture to win an Academy Award nod for Best Picture as it is for a debut director to receive one, but Get Out did both. According to Box Office Mojo, it was also the largest financial success of 2017, grossing $255.7 million on a $4.5 million budget.
Us
Believe me when I say that this film may bother you every day. Us begins at night in 1986, on the boardwalk on the beach in Santa Cruz, California, at a carnival. A young child gets separated from her father, who is drinking beer and playing Whac-A-Mole. She almost trance-like wanders to the beach and ends up in a fun-house, hall-of-mirrors-type attraction. She sees something that will haunt her for the rest of her life while lost inside.
Like Get Out, Us performed far above the standard horror outing, yet it still carried a comparably low budget of $20 million, according to reports. The film earned nearly 13 times that figure with a worldwide total of just over $255 million.
You can watch “Get Out,” “Us,” and your other favorite thrilling and mind-blowing movies on Amazon Prime Video.