Audiences aren't waking up for Doctor Sleep.
The sequel to The Shining, which follows an adult Danny Torrance, was a major box office disappointment this weekend, grossing an estimated $14 million domestically, The Hollywood Reporter says. The film looked set to make at least $25 million in its debut and lead the weekend, but it unexpectedly came in behind the World War II film Midway, which opened to $17.5 million. Doctor Sleep's production budget was about $45 million, Variety reports.
Marketing for Doctor Sleep heavily emphasized the film's connection to The Shining, with trailers showing some of the original movie's most iconic images, and with posters dubbing it the "next chapter in The Shining story." Still, audiences were evidently disinterested in a follow-up to a film that seemed to leave no obvious need for one, even though Doctor Sleep's source material was the sequel novel written by Stephen King himself. The film not opening prior to Halloween, when audiences' interest in such a horror movie may have been higher, could also have been a factor in its weak performance.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This is the second week in a row that a major studio film has disappointed at the box office, with Terminator: Dark Fate previously having a weak $29 million opening. Both films earned fairly positive reviews, making their poor debuts all the more surprising. With Terminator, a string of poorly received previous films, including another reboot just four years prior, is widely considered to be to blame.
Still, things should turn around at the box office soon enough, with Frozen 2 expected to open to more than $100 million later this month. The sequel should easily give Disney its sixth billion-dollar hit of 2019; Disney has already shattered the record for most billion-dollar films released by a single studio in one year.
-
September 14 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-warTalking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
A tour of Sri Lanka’s beautiful northThe Week Recommends ‘Less frenetic’ than the south, this region is full of beautiful wildlife, historical sites and resorts
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wifespeed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
