Despite suffering a critical lashing, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey has already become a box office hit. Inspired by the children’s characters of the same name, the film revolves around Pooh and Piglet, turned feral after being abandoned by Christopher Robin, as they embark on a murder spree on a group of college students visiting the Hundred Acre Wood. Becoming a viral sensation after its announcement, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey saw its one-night-only theatrical release expanded to a week, which looks to have been a benefit for it.
Though Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania dominated this weekend’s box office, Deadline has brought word that Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey has become a box office hit. The film, which opened to mostly negative reviews from critics, garnered a solid $750k opening weekend haul, bumping it up to a $1.58 million gross in its first week of release. It marks a promising sign for the film’s overall financial results, as Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was produced on a reported budget of $100k.
Blood & Honey’s Success Is A Good Sign For 2023’s Horror Releases
Just two months into the new year and 2023 has already gotten off to a strong start for the horror genre beginning with January’s M3GAN. The film, produced by genre vet James Wan, rode its viral marketing based around its eponymous killer doll to major box office success, grossing over $170 million against its $12 million production budget and securing a sequel greenlight from Blumhouse and Universal. The latter studio continued to enjoy success heading into the start of February with M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin, which has grossed a modest $47.9 million against its $20 million production budget.
Even prior to the film’s release, Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the writer, director and producer behind Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, seemed confident in its success, announcing plans for a sequel were already in the works. Frake-Waterfield is also looking to continue the success of his unique new horror subgenre with twisted takes on both Bambi and Peter Pan, the former of which he is just producing, though recently teased they could all be part of an interconnected universe.
Though Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey‘s theatrical release is limited to up to Thursday, February 23, its box office success points towards the genre’s trend of hits continuing through the year. Next month alone will see the arrival of the highly-awaited Scream VI, which is projected to gross nearly $5 million more than its predecessor in its opening weekend, while the rest of the year will see multiple other genre IPs return, including Evil Dead Rise, Insidious: Fear the Dark, The Exorcist legacy sequel, The Nun 2 and Saw X, which recently wrapped filming. With the year also seeing original releases Beau is Afraid, Renfield and The Last Voyage of the Demeter, the horror genre could rival some of its competition this year.
Source: Deadline