The Possession of Hannah Grace is the lone new release to enter the post-Thanksgiving void at the box office and it got off to a decent start in relation to its fairly small budget.
Previewing in 1,866 locations, the R-rated horror film conjured up $625,000 in Thursday night previews. Sony is expecting $3 million for the weekend, which was my prediction as well, but this start indicates it could surge a bit higher, with some industry estimates predicting $7 million for the weekend. That would be a great start for the microbudgeted horror film which cost under $10 million to make.
The post-Thanksgiving frame is typically a downer at the box office which is why most studios take the weekend off from opening new releases. This weekend allows other films that are underperforming to maybe gain some traction at the box office since there aren’t many new offerings on the table. Horror is starting to become the exception because, along with this film, Krampus opened a week after Thanksgiving back in 2015 and grossed $16.2 million during its opening weekend. The $15 million film went on to gross $42.7 million at the domestic box office.
