A24 is all-in on Ti West and Mia Goth‘s X Universe, with this year’s slasher movie X spawning this weekend’s brand new prequel movie Pearl. And as we learned just last week, there’s a third movie titled MaXXXine that’s on the way from West, Goth, and A24, a sequel to X that will be set in the 1980s. But how much box office demand is there for this universe?
Pearl opened in 2,935 theaters across the United States over the weekend, the 1918-set prequel scaring up $3,124,600 and coming in #3 on the weekend’s overall box office chart.
For the sake of comparison, Ti West’s X debuted to $4.2 million back in March of this year, that film also released in roughly the same amount of theaters here in the States.
X went on to make $11.7 million domestically, and $14.4 million worldwide.
The interesting thing about X and Pearl is that both movies were already in the can before X even came out, which means A24 didn’t even care to wait and see if the demand was there for a prequel. It’s rare to see a studio believing in their filmmaker to this extent, and it looks like MaXXXine – though not yet filmed – is on the menu no matter what happens with Pearl.
The even better news? The cost on these movies is low, making the X Universe a calculated risk from A24. Without knowing the exact production budgets it’s hard to say, but in all likelihood this will end up being a profitable venture for A24. These are small movies being made for increasingly niche audiences, and enough people are showing up to justify the spend.
This month’s new prequel movie is set in 1918, decades prior to the 1970s-set X, which was released in theaters back in March of this year. Goth played the dual role of Pearl, a senior citizen, and Maxine, the film’s final girl. The film ends with Maxine killing Pearl, who along with her husband Howard had been brutally slaying Maxine’s friends throughout the movie.
But where did Pearl’s story begin? “Trapped on her family’s isolated farm, Pearl must tend to her ailing father under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother. Lusting for a glamorous life like she’s seen in the movies, Pearl’s ambitions, temptations, and repressions all collide, in the stunning, technicolor-inspired origin story of X’s iconic villain.”
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