It’s been a long time coming but Sony’s latest entry in the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise has arrived. Serving as a fresh take on the 1997 slasher of the same name (but don’t call it a reboot), this served as the weekend’s big new release alongside Paramount’s animated Smurfs movie. The good news is that it performed better than Smurfs. The bad news is that it still fell short of expectations.
See also: I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER: Why Freddie Prinze Jr. Agreed To Return To Southport
Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s I Know What You Did Last Summer opened to an estimated $13 million domestically, good enough to land at number three on the charts. It had been tracking closer to $20 million heading into the weekend. Superman ($57.2 million) maintained its place at number one, while Jurassic World Rebirth ($23.4 million) continued to hold strong in its third weekend. In the midst of a crowded summer, Sony’s revival of this ‘90s slasher got buried a bit.
Overseas, the movie pulled in an additional $11.6 million for a $24.6 million global start. That’s not bad for a horror flick with an $18 million production budget. But with so-so reviews and similar reactions from moviegoers, this isn’t going to be what Sony was hoping for. It will make its money back in the end thanks to that relatively thrifty price tag, but anyone hoping to see Jennifer Love Hewitt return as Julie James once more shouldn’t hold their breath.
The latest entry in the series centers on five friends who inadvertently cause a deadly car accident, which they cover up and promise to keep a secret. A year later, their past comes back to haunt them as it’s hauntingly revealed that someone knows what they did last summer. Sound familiar? Hewitt returns as James alongside Freddie Prinze Jr. as Ray, with a young cast of newcomers including Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel and Austin Nichols.
This can be the risk when releasing a horror movie in the midst of the summer crowded movie season. Blumhouse recently suffered a similar, albeit worse fate with M3GAN 2.0. In the streaming era, it’s tough to convince people to leave the house. Nostalgia just wasn’t as high for this series as Sony expected. It’s not as strong as Scream or Halloween in that way, unfortunately. That’s probably why the Amazon Prime Video IKWYDLS series only lasted one season a couple of years back.
Looking ahead, horror fans of Zach Cregger’s Weapons to look forward to in early August. New Line seems to be high on that one and it could help end the summer on a strong note for the genre.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is in theaters now. For more, get the lowdown on the upcoming 4K restoration of Day of the Dead.
