Horror movies for the most part have been a rather successful genre during the pandemic. It is, therefore, a notable surprise to see New Line Cinema’s Malignant do poorly for its opening weekend.

The most recent film in the horror genre Candyman made an unexpected big blow-out in ticket sales of $22.37 million on its debut weekend. Malignant, in contrast, has so far barely grossed over $5.57 million during its release weekend. This is a disappointment for Warner Bros and New Line Cinema producers who had invested 40$ million on the film’s production. It is an even more shocking result considering that director James Wan had a very successful track record in his previous horror film productions as co-creator of The Conjuring and the Saw franchises.

It’s important to note that Malignant was also released simultaneously on HBO Max. Although this is a big factor to consider as regular moviegoers can now decide to watch from the comfort of their homes, the film’s poor debut weekend is poignant nonetheless.

On the international market, Malignant has made a total of $15.1 million. This is not bad compared to its counterpart slasher horror film Candyman that only reached $10.9$ million internationally.