What Does The Box Office For Lee Cronin's The Mummy Mean For The Future Of The Franchise?

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"Lee Cronin's The Mummy" hit theaters this past weekend, and while it wasn't a big breakout hit, this one will go down as a win for Warner Bros. and Blumhouse. A big win? In the end, maybe not, but a win is a win nonetheless. The degree of that win probably tells us a lot about the future of Hollywood horror, both regarding "The Mummy" property itself and the industry's re-imaginings of classic movie monsters.

Cronin's take on "The Mummy" opened to an estimated $13.5 million domestically. That wasn't enough to take the crown from "Project Hail Mary" ($20.4 million), which won't be streaming anytime soon, or "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" ($35 million). But it was more than enough for third place as counterprogramming. More importantly, the director's gory monster flick took in a better-than-anticipated $20.5 million overseas, giving it a $34 million global start. Against a reported $22 million budget, that's a decent win.

The problem emerges in the weeks ahead. Critics and audiences have been very mixed on this new version of "The Mummy." It holds a 47% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes alongside a so-so 75% audience score. /Film's Chris Evangelista called "Lee Cronin's The Mummy" a "surprisingly stylish and gory freakshow" in his review, while also pointing out that it's "not really a mummy movie," and instead feels more like an "Exorcist" film. It also earned a lousy C+ CinemaScore, which suggests word of mouth won't be great, so we probably shouldn't expect very long legs.

Cronin's latest depicts the young daughter of a foreign journalist disappearing in Cairo. Eight years later, the family is shocked when she very suddenly returns under strange circumstances, but the joyful reunion is cut short as the young girl soon transforms into something horrifying.

The Mummy is still viable monster movie IP

Warner Bros. and Blumhouse are going to come out ahead on "Lee Cronin's The Mummy" because they were thrifty with the budget. Even if the film falls off a cliff at the box office after opening weekend, it should easily be able to triple its budget theatrically before all's said and done, which is certainly good enough. Once VOD and streaming is factored in, it'll be a win.

It won't be a win as big as Blumhouse's bold reimagining of "The Invisible Man" ($144 million worldwide/$7 million budget) in 2020, but it's much bigger than last year's big box office disappointment that was "Wolf Man" ($34 million worldwide/$25 million budget). Whether or not Blumhouse has any more of these monster movie re-imaginings in mind remains to be seen, but this weekend's results proved that such endeavors are still viable, even if they're not necessarily critical darlings like "The Invisible Man" was.

Looking at "The Mummy" as a franchise more specifically, it appears that mummies are on the higher end in terms of viability of classic monsters. Vampires have always been a big gamble financially, with more recent giant hits like "Sinners" serving as big surprises rather than sure things. "Nosferatu" had to actually bring vampires back to life at the box office after a run of disappointing performers involving the blood-sucking creatures. Mummies, on the other hand, have a certain level of global appeal.

Brendan Fraser's "The Mummy" was a box office smash in 1999 that led to a generationally beloved franchise. This bodes well for forthcoming "The Mummy 4." Even Tom Cruise's "The Mummy" did $409 million worldwide, despite being considered an absolute disaster that killed the Dark Universe.

In short? If Hollywood doesn't overdo it, mummies are evidently still pretty viable franchise fare.

"Lee Cronin's The Mummy" is in theaters now.