Candyman hit theaters on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021 and it had an impressive $27 million opening weekend.
Directed by Nia DaCosta and written by Jordan Peele, the film stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and Colman Domingo with Vanessa Williams, Tony Todd, and Virginia Madsen reprising their roles from the original 1992 film. The sequel was originally scheduled to be released on June 12, 2020, but was pushed back on three occasions over the past year due to the pandemic.
The film was projected to earn around $15 million opening weekend in the United States and Canada but has already managed to surpass that. Just two days after its release, Candyman has grossed $22.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $5.2 million in other territories, making for a combined $27.6 million in earnings.
The 1992 version of Candyman was released during a time when Hollywood assumed Black horror films wouldn’t sell. It was very rare that Black horror films ever actually received a green light — but that has changed in recent years thanks to Peele. The influx of Black horror films can be attributed to the success of Peele’s 2017 film Get Out, which had a budget of $4.5 million and amassed a remarkable $255 million in domestic and international box-office sales.
“You look at Jordan’s first film, Get Out, a sub $5 million dollar movie, which is really cheap to make a film, especially a film of that scale,” DaCosta told theGrio. “He proved that not only could the movie make a ton of money in the States and be critically acclaimed, but [it] also [did well] internationally. That helps for other people to follow. I think that’s what’s changing. … We’re able to prove ourselves more now.”
