Online buzz doesn't always translate into box office returns; we've seen it before, and we're seeing it again this week, as Universal’s aggressive launch of the horror comedy Renfield delivers soft numbers. Starring Nicholas Hoult as the titular character and Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula, the modern-day re-imagining of the Transylvanian legend opened to an estimated $7.7 million domestically. It added another $2.3 million from overseas markets, for a global debut of $10 million.
Renfield is playing in more than 3,300 domestic theaters, and was given a day-and-date debut in 46 international territories. Produced on a reported budget of $65 million, the film will have to really perform a miracle to recover from here, because the Dracula brand doesn't seem to be pulling audiences. Director Chris McKay told Collider that Renfield serves as a direct sequel to the iconic 1931 Dracula film, starring Bela Lugosi in the titular role.
In Renfield, Hoult’s titular character decides to explore outside opportunities after a lifetime of servitude in the employ of “history’s most narcissistic boss.” The film received a ho-hum B- CinemaScore from opening day audiences, and currently sits at a “rotten” 59% score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Collider’s own Maggie Boccella described the film a “delightfully gory ride” in her review, and praised McKay for striking a “special balance between terror and camp.”
McKay made a name for himself on the cult animated comedy series Robot Chicken, before making his feature directorial debut with the acclaimed The Lego Batman Movie. He branched out into live-action with the big-budget science-fiction film The Tomorrow War, starring Chris Pratt. McKay also contributed to the story of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which finished just behind Renfield at the domestic box office this weekend.
'Renfield' Was Born Out of the Failure of the Dark Universe
Universal has attempted to reboot the Dracula franchise once already in the last decade. In 2014, the studio debuted the moderately successful but ultimately pointless Dracula Untold, starring Luke Evans. The film was briefly tied to the ill-fated Dark Universe — a planned shared universe of films featuring classic monsters from the Universal cannon — but the franchise was eventually launched with the 2017 The Mummy reboot instead. That film was widely considered to have underachieved both creatively and commercially, which scuttled all plans for the shared franchise. Subsequently, Universal decided to focus on rebooting its old classics with director-driven, modestly budgeted movies, beginning with Leigh Whannell’s well-received and commercially successful The Invisible Man in 2020.
For Cage, this marks the second film in as many years to have overtly attempted to capitalize on his eccentric screen persona, after The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. That action-comedy, in which Cage played an exaggerated version of himself, underperformed with less than $30 million worldwide. Once among the world’s biggest movie stars, Cage re-emerged after several years of professional and personal setbacks with an unexpectedly restrained performance in 2021’s awards contender Pig.
Renfield also stars Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez and Shohreh Aghdashloo. You can watch our interview with Hoult and Cage here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.