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'Nosferatu' Becomes Robert Eggers' Highest Grossing Film in North America
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- Category: Movie News
- Published: Wednesday, 09 April 2025 00:32
Releasing a horror movie in the middle of the holiday season might have been a risky move, but it’s one that ultimately paid off. Nosferatu made its debut on the 2nd of December in Berlin and came out internationally on Christmas Day. With a huge 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has surpassed all expectations and has since become Robert Egger’s highest-grossing film in North America.
What Made the Movie Do So Well?
Horror isn’t the easiest genre to rank for when it comes to the box office. With that said, there are some movies that have done incredibly well, and have made a huge amount of profit. A lot of this comes down to how affordable they can be to film. This article by Lottoland details the Blair Witch Project as costing $60,000, but it ended up generating over $250 million in revenue. Paranormal Activity only cost $15,000 to film, but grossed $193 million. Stats like this show that horror has the potential to be a big profit market for directors, but with that said, it’s sometimes hard to find the right crowd. Traditional horror fans didn’t like Crimson Peak, which only grossed $31 million in the domestic market. Nightmare Alley also grossed $11.3 million, showing that sometimes, it’s hard to get it right.
So that brings about the question, what drove the success of Egger’s Nosferatu? His Viking epic The Northman found a huge audience which helped to garner interest in his new movie. In fact, audience exits showed that 32% of people went to go and see Nosferatu, purely because of Eggers.
The Dracula Market has been Dormant for Some Time
Other factors have come into play when you look at the momentum for Nosferatu. There hasn’t been a high-appeal Dracula movie released for some time. Bram Stoker’s DRACULA was probably the last one that drew a huge crowd. The ones since have been plagued by casting issues, poor storylines and generic themes that don’t spark the interest of horror fans. Even though Bram Stoker’s Dracula grossed roughly $82.5 million, it was a huge success when you look at inflation and how it has affected modern day movies.
With 43% of fans citing Nosferatu’s plot or subject matter as being the reason why they went to go and see it, it just seems that the movie’s success was the result of having the right director, and the right cast at the right time. Releasing a horror movie on Christmas Day was pure genius in marketing as well, and even though it did have tough competition, it was a brilliant move that went on to pay off. Another movie that did well was Scream, which was released on the 20th of December.
By taking note of the horror movies that have done well before during this period, it seems that they have been able to capitalize on a huge opportunity. Egger’s has since cemented himself as being one of the best modern-day directors as well, with plenty of new movies lined up, which could mean horror fans are in for a treat sooner than expected.