A reboot of the 2004 horror film The Grudge has hit theaters, making for the first wide release of 2020. Opening in 2,393 locations across the country Thursday night starting at 7 PM, the film took home $1.8 million in late night showings.
Directed by Nicolas Pesce, the film is a reboot of Takashi Shimizu’s 2004 film of the same name. This English remake of Shimizu’s 2002 Japanese horror film Ju-On: The Grudge has been produced Evil Dead mastermind Sam Raimi, who returned to work on the newest film and saw similar success as a horror film producer with 2016’s Don’t Breath. Reimagining similar events of the first film and taking place simultaneously, The Grudge stirred up excitement for fans of the original upon its development announcement nearly nine years ago.
Box office predictions for the weekend estimate the film will earn at least $10 million, and considering its budget of the same amount, this wouldn’t be considered a loss for distributor Sony. However, early reviews have not been as kind to the film. Garnering just 22% on Rotten Tomatoes as of Friday afternoon, viewers gave The Grudge just half a star on average according to its PostTrak report.
The Grudge is open in theaters nationwide for fans of the genre looking for a bit of January horror.