The Invisible Man Makes Visible Profits
Well, Elisabeth Moss looking like she’s hag-ridden and crying all the time is what the people want.
And thus, after pulling a decent weekend against a low budget, the director of the needlessly political The Invisible Man is getting signed to more work, this time with Blumhouse.
From the trades:
After opening at the top of the box office this weekend, the R-rated, “The Invisible Man” has grossed roughly $29 million so far off of a $9 million budget. “The Invisible Man,” director Leigh Whannel has signed a first-look deal with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions for film and television.
What is really telling here is that there are two models now for driving profits in Hollywood: low budget, stupidly political, PG-13 or R-rated, “horror” films, and loud obnoxious, genre-defining superhero films with big budgets that only Disney can make.
But don’t ask us. Talk to Simon Pegg. Or this Leigh Whannel cat.
Blumhouse Has a Track Record
Known for producing either low budget dreck like the Insidious film franchise, the Purge film franchise, and the Paranormal Activity films, or low budget critical darlings like Whiplash, Black kKklansman or Get Out, Blumhouse has made a name for themselves over the last ten years.
This writer personally has never seen a Blumhouse film production, but apparently a lot of other people have.
From the trades, yet again:
The two-year first-look deal will cover projects that Whannell proposes to write direct or produce. Whannell and Blumhouse have collaborated on seven projects in the last 10 years, including the “Insidious” franchise and “Upgrade.”
“Leigh creates movies which not only launch franchises but fundamentally change the landscape of their genre. After he and James Wan made ‘Saw,’ it launched dozens of copycats. Their work with Blumhouse on ‘Insidious’ launched not just a franchise, but dozens of classical proscenium PG-13 supernatural horror films. I have no doubt that will be true for ‘The Invisible Man’ and for anything else he wants to create. I just want to be there with him when he does,” said Blum.
If you’re a director and you want to “win” in Hollywood you have to go where the game is being played these days.
What Are We To Make of All of This?
Well, for one, expect more stuff like Get Out and The Invisible Man in your cinematic future.
Over the next ten years, the hollowing out of midlevel, non-genre films will continue, even as the MCU and Disney wreck their brand goodwill on the shores of social justice moralizing.
Second, expect that more directors like Whannell will go to smaller production companies, or to streaming services, as the “ego” cost of being involved with genres like Star Wars, an MCU film, or even a live-action Disney remake becomes less interesting and more problematic from a “vision” standpoint.
