The horror audience has proven a hard sell in the post-COVID movie-going marketplace. New titles that reliably opened in the low to mid $teens made cheap horror productions a staple of most every studio’s release slate. And franchises could reliably be expected to roll up over $20, sometimes over $25 million on their opening weekends.

Rebooting 2000’s “Final Destination” with “Bloodlines” paid off with an epic turnout, over $50 million earlier this summer. But that’s been the rarest of exceptions, as even the most reliable franchises have consistenly underwhelmed, with only the occasional prestige horror project — “Sinners” and the like — delivering big paydays.

Case in point — the reboot of the venerable “I Know What You Did Last Summer” franchise. Launched in ’97, relaunching with a good looking young cast and the nostalgia of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze for older fans, this should have been bucks in the bank — BIG bucks. Pre-COVID, this project could have been expected to do $25-30, a lot more than the $13 million it opened with.

So that “reliable” audience has grown discerning? Or just more fickle?

“I Know What You Did Last Summer,” but I no longer care?

Ari Aster turned boutique distributor A24 into the home for discriminating horror, thanks to “Midsommar” and “Hereditary.” His latest, “Eddington,” is a political allegory/”Western” starring his “Beau is Afraid” leading man Joaquin Phoenix. It’s on a lot of screens and nobody is showing up.

“Eddington” cleared $4.25 with the reviews for this one suggesting a rare misfire for Ari A.

James Gunn’s “Superman” is on track to dominate its second weekend, following its $125 million opening with a big but steadily sliding-off opening week, a $16 million or so Friday, a better Saturday and Sunday that added up $57 million second weekend. It cleared the $235 million mark (by midnight Sunday).

The “Smurfs” reboot that who-knows-who asked for is a taking in a tepid $11  million. Sony made a $billion off these films before the “Sing” and “Trolls” movies made them redundant. Paramount is releasing this latest one.  The last “Smurfs” was only released in the Middle East, and the one before it, “The Lost Village,” barely cleared $13 million on its opening weekend.

Stock a fork in’em, “The Smurfs” are done.

“Jurassic World: Rebirth” should cling to second place, clearing $23.4. “Last Summer” and “Smurfs” will  lap “F1” for third and fourth putting Brad Pitt’s hit in fifth at $9.6.

The remake of “How to Train Your Dragon” and the original children’s cartoon “Elio” drop out of the top five, the quickest exit ever for a Pixar release.

“Dragon” came in sixth at $5.35. “Eddington” managed seventh with that $4 million and change take. “Elio” is a Dead Pixar Pic walking, grabbing a last $2 million before losing many of its screens and heading to streaming.

The “Lilo & Stitch” remake, the biggest hit of 2025, is winding down its $415 million domestic/$billion dollar worldwide run with one last weekend in the top ten at $1.5.

“28 Years Later” is zombie-ing its way to a $70 million or so take, all-in (it’s at $68 thanks to another $1.3 million).

A lot of movies lower in the chart show us a “Phoenecian Scheme” that will never clear $20, “Ballerina” falling short of $60, “Materialists” paying off and “M3GAN 2.0” being one of the bigger horror bombs of the year.