With The Exorcist: Believer bombing even more than expected at the box office and with critics and fans alike, it’s reported the sequels will likely see changes.
Believer debuted this past weekend with box office projections offering $30 million or more, but then as word got out how bad the movie is, estimates were dropped to around $27.2 million, but the actual number comes in even lower at $26.4 million.
With Universal paying out a whopping $400 million for the rights, sure, The Exorcist: Believer needed to open to a lot more than $30 million, for just the new trilogy to be a success, but what the first movie from Blumhouse needed to do was to create excitement for the sequels and the new franchise.
It failed to do just that and backfired.
Creative plan is in a tailspin
As a result, THR reports the sequels, as The Exorcist: Deceiver is up next for a 2025 release, will likely see changes and get retooled.
The site offers the Believer low box office and response from critics and fans has put the “creative plan into a tailspin.”
While the site makes excuses such as opening a week earlier than it was supposed to due to Taylor Swift (it wouldn’t have mattered) and competition from other horror movies (fans love Saw X), the site mirrors my own beliefs (I think the flick will be on VOD by Halloween: update: confirmed) and adds, “Believer could get excised from screens faster than usual.”
Regarding the creative plan, sources fill in THR that Universal still plans on making two more Exorcist films, but says, “Believer’s reception will almost certainly demand some degree of creative rethink for the next two films.”
David Gordon Green could get the boot
That creative rethink could include the ouster of director David Gordon Green who saw big success with the first Halloween, but couldn’t do it again with The Exorcist: Believer.
It is said the script for The Exorcist: Deceiver is complete which according to IMDb lists David Gordon Green as both the director and writer, so if changes are coming, expect a new writer to come on board and then a new director.
Green is already casting doubt on his return.
“My intention is just to start making things, and as those plans come together, if I find myself in that [The Exorcist: Deceiver] director’s chair, I’d be thrilled,” Green told THR. “But right now, I’m navigating it from a story perspective and looking at my realities of life as I pivot.”
If Believer isn’t any good it doesn’t take a leap of faith to think Deceiver is just as bad.
Why include the controversial scene?
The Exorcist: Believer also brought back original actress Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil, where a controversial scene leaked online.
MacNeil is asked why she didn’t participate in the exorcism of her daughter and blamed the “damn patriarchy.”
For whatever reason, they thought it was a good idea to spit on the original movie, which is a classic and one of the scariest movies of all time, but again, things majorly backfired.
One fan questioned why they felt the need to include that scene (it’s just like Luke in The Last Jedi).
Speaking of the fans, The Exorcist: Believer only has a 58% Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score, which gives it that “rotten rating,” and the critics score is even worse at 23%. IMDb has rated Believer a 5.1.
Watch the TV series
Fans should check out the excellent The Exorcist TV series that recently aired on FOX for two seasons.
The plot is basically demons possessing high-ranking officials in power and in the church where they come together and form, basically, the Illuminati.
The show was created by Jeremy Slater of The Umbrella Academy and Marvel’s Moon Knight fame, and Slater is writing Mortal Kombat 2 and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
It’s a darn shame they canceled it, and instead, we got this Believer garbage from Blumhouse. Talk about clueless and needing an exorcism of their own.
