Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ shatters box office records with $70.3 million
Written by Lindah Nduwumwami on March 25, 2019
Jordan Peele did it again. Two years after the filmmaker’s “Get Out” became a box office sensation, his frightening follow-up, “Us,” made its debut with $70.3 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The opening, which was well above forecasts, has few parallels. It was the largest debut for an original horror film (only the remake of “It” and last year’s “Halloween” have surpassed it in the genre) and one of the biggest openings for a live-action original film since “Avatar” was released 10 years ago.
In today’s franchise-driven movie world, seldom has a young director been such a draw. But moviegoers turned out in droves to see what kind of freak-out Peele could muster in his sophomore release.
“Peele has really crafted an extraordinary story that I think once again is going to capture the cultural zeitgeist,” said Jim Orr, distribution chief for Universal. “He is recognized as just an amazing talent. He crafts films that make you think, that are extraordinarily well-acted, well-written and are amazingly entertaining.”
(Universal is a division of NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.)
“Us” took over the top spot at the box office from “Captain Marvel,” which had reigned for two weeks. The Marvel Studios superhero release slid to second place, with $35 million in its third week. In three weeks of release, it has made $910 million worldwide and will soon become the first $1 billion release of 2019.
