Distributors for Terrifier 3 revealed teenage moviegoers may be buying tickets to a family-friendly movie to sneak into theater showings of the Christmas-themed supernatural slasher film. The third installment focuses on the killer clown, Art the Clown (David Howard Thorton), as he terrorizes anyone who gets in his way, including Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera), whose attempt to rebuild her life is thwarted by him and his new partner and ex-victim, a possessed Victoria Heyes. Despite being unrated, Damien Leone’s threequel opened to $18.9 million at the box office during its debut weekend, charting well past The Wild Robot, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Joker: Folie à Deux.

Now, major theater distributors such as AMC, Cinemark, and Regal may have put some reins on Terrifier 3’s lead at the box office. According to The Hollywood Reporter, major theaters have been treating Terrifier 3 as an R-rated film and turning away anyone 17 or younger from buying a ticket without a parent or guardian. However, it seems certain young moviegoers have found a way around the theater’s internal security by purchasing tickets to The Wild Robot to sneak into Terrifier 3, as distributors noticed a box office bump for the animated film.

Two distribution sources noted over the weekend that DreamWorks Animation and Universal’s The Wild Robot saw a noticeable bump, and speculate that teenagers and tweens bought tickets to that film and then sneaked into Terrifier 3. The same trend continued on Monday’s Indigenous Peoples Day holiday.

What Lost Ticket Sales Could Mean for Terrifier 3

A Slasher for All

The response to Terrifier 3 continues to exceed expectations at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing opening weekend for a horror film this year with Joker: Folie à Deux's box office bomb clearing the way for the number one spot. With a 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film is well on its way to becoming the top-grossing unrated film of all time domestically — an accomplishment for the horror genre that’s been potentially thwarted by its distributors. This also means the $18.9 million box office opening is just an underestimate of its commercial success.

Before the pandemic, few theaters rarely booked a title that didn’t have a rating due to strict limits on public advertising, but as seen with the Terrifier 3 roll-out, the times have started to change. The film secured a spot at 2,513 cinemas — a greater theatrical release than either of its predecessors. Nonetheless, the film partly assumes the consequences of an R-rating by box office standards due to its excessive gore and violence, which has reportedly prompted walkouts and even vomiting just from Terrifier 3's opening scene. Yet, this controversy has likely done more to bring teenagers and tweens to the theater than to keep them out.

Our Take on Terrifier’s 3 Box-Office Success

Any Press is Good Press

Leone’s magnum opus has grown from its niche cult following on a small budget into a major franchise with a wide audience appeal. Terrifier 3's controversial use of violence, which many speculated would hurt the movie at the box office, seems to have garnered an appeal among a younger fan base that would go out of their way to satiate a need for a solid, bloody slasher. Unfortunately for Terrifier 3, the box office numbers may not entirely reflect how many people are actually in the seats.

Source: THR