Tough break for Leigh Whannell’s “Wolf Man” — audiences seem to hate the movie. That brutal C- CinemaScore sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s very rare for a film to get that low of a score — 2010’s much maligned “The Wolfman,” with Benicio del Toro and Emily Blunt, earned a C+ rating.
I’ve seen the film — which earned $4.5M on Friday, and no way does it deserve this rating. Maybe the downer ending turned mainstream audiences off; it’s not a good movie but neither is it a bad one. Hell, even ‘Kraven’ did better on CinemaScore than ‘Kraven.’
Just to compare, Whannell’s “The Invisible Man,” made for just $7M, earned a B+ CinemaScore and went on to become a major sleeper hit at the box office. It certainly helps that the film was very well reviewed.
Things don’t look any better for ‘Wolf Man’ on IMDB (5.9/10) and Rotten Tomatoes (59% user score). The good news is that the film was made for only $25M and, if you add in international receipts, it’s set to make much of that money back this weekend alone, including $14M domestically. Still, this has turned into a major disappointment for Blumhouse/Universal.