The Exorcist: Believer opened with a solid box office weekend, but studios spent $400 million for the franchise rights.
The Exorcist series goes back to the 1970s and has always been a powerhouse in horror films. The sequels didn’t garner as much attention or notoriety as the original, but some were still praised and even had a cult following, like The Exorcist 3. But it has been a while since there has been a mainline entry into the Exorcist series.
The Exorcist: Believer seems to be made with sequels in mind. The price tag for the rights to The Exorcist series was very hefty. The rights cost $400 million, and with just one film, it will be hard to make back all of that, let alone the budget for making The Exorcist: Believer itself. So it can be assumed that there will be sequels in mind and, more than likely, a trilogy like Blumhouse did for the recent Halloween trilogy.
The problem is that The Exorcist: Believer is not sitting well with critics. People might go and see this movie out of curiosity, but the critics do not like it, and a sequel doesn’t look as promising. It sits on a 22% Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.2 on IMDb.
So the question is: will sequels to this film be a thing? We will have to see how the film does in the coming weeks, but due to the critics’ reception, the answer can’t be a resounding yes. Even if the film ends up doing good, it’s hard to be able to commit to two other films, which is more than likely what is expected.
The Exorcist: Believer was moved from its first release date, which was October 13th, to October 6th. This was done due to Taylor Swift’s concert film coming out on October 13th. Will play into The Exorcist: Believer’s future box office plans as Taylor Swift’s concert film will shake off the competition. That being said, The Exorcist: Believer has its work cut out for it. With the future not looking too bright, maybe we should’ve left the Exorcist series in the past.
