Here’s a movie that certainly surpassed expectations.
The low-budget “Terrifier” franchise is not usually one that makes big bucks. The first film from 2016 made less than $1 million. The second, in the glorious year for horror that was 2022, was lucky to pass $10 million. Now comes a third entry that not only made more than the other two movies combined in its opening weekend with $18 million, it took the No. 1 spot at the domestic box office.
It’s not hard to see what happened here: “Terrifier 3” was sent out to capitalize on the evil clown momentum started by “Joker: Folie à Deux.” It wasn’t supposed to beat the huge blockbuster, just ride its coattails to a decent, maybe second-place showing. But audiences kicked that giant “Joker” letdown to the curb (all the way to No. 3, behind the third weekend of “The Wild Robot”) and decided that they wanted a movie that does evil clowns right. Well, maybe “right” is the wrong word, but the........