'Wolf Man' Nears End of Theatrical Run With Worryingly Low Global Box Office Haul

Wolfman

By Rahul Malhotra

Published Feb 4, 2025

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Image via Universal

Once associated with a disruptive new brand of horror cinema, Blumhouse Productions has been going through a bit of a rough patch recently. In its partnership with Universal, Blumhouse has delivered a string of under-performers. The most recent in this cold-streak is the horror reboot Wolf Man, which is already nearing the end of its run just around two weeks after its debut. The film hit what could possibly be its final global box office milestone on Monday, a day before its debut on PVOD platforms. Universal typically releases its films digitally after 17 days if they gross less than a certain amount.

Wolf Man certainly falls into that bracket. With around $20 million domestically and another $12 million from overseas markets, the film's cumulative global haul now stands at $32 million. Wolf Man was produced on a reported budget of $25 million, which means that there's no way it can be spun into a hit. The movie comes on the heels of similarly disappointing Blumhouse releases such as Imaginary, Night Swim, Afraid, and The Exorcist: Believer. They did, however, pepper this sorry streak with a couple of hits, such as Five Nights at Freddy's and Speak No Evil.

The Wolf Man Character Seems To Be Cursed in More Ways than One

The situation for mainstream horror has been dire as a whole in recent months. But at the same time, more art-house titles such as Nosferatu, Longlegs, The Substance, and Heretic have done very well commercially. With Wolf Man, Universal would've hoped to repeat the success of director Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man reboot, which made over $140 million globally and earned excellent reviews in 2020. Instead, the film's performance doesn't inspire much confidence in this stripped-down approach to the Classic Monsters. Universal and Blumhouse also have a reboot of The Mummy in the works, alongside yet another reboot of The Exorcist.

Starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, Wolf Man opened to mixed reviews, and currently holds a "rotten" 52% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. In her review, Collider's Emma Kiely described the film as "a boring, contrived family drama that lacks scares and hammers home the importance of the all-American family unit." The character originated in the 1940s, and was previously re-imagined in a 2010 film starring Benicio Del Toro and directed by Joe Johnston. That movie flopped as well.

You can watch Wolf Man in theaters and at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.