‘The Monkey’ Swings To NEON’s Second-Best Previews Ever With $1.9M – Box Office

deadline.com:

There’s been a lot of horror film in the last month and a half, but NEON‘s The Monkey is on its way to posting the best opening for a horror movie YTD with $12M-$14M this weekend after $1.9M previews.

That number for the Oz Perkins directed movie includes advance screenings. For NEON, which shot to box office heights with Perkins’ pic last summer, Longlegs, with $3M previews and a $22.4M opening, The Monkey‘s previews are the second best for the distributor.

The Monkey‘s previews in total are higher than the $1.7M clocked by New Line’s critically acclaimed and audience fave Companion, which settled for a $9.3M opening.

Quorum says this AM that The Monkey climbed to higher awareness than Longlegs before opening on what was a traditional campaign (read, NEON hid the killer in its Longlegs promos in a clever YouTube short clip stunts, whole the Monkey is natch everywhere to be found in its push for the Perkins film, from one sheets to eight-foot size chimps in multiplex lobbies), however, “interest is seven points lower for The Monkey, which points to a mid-teen opening.” The 18-34 bunch showed up at 63% per Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak starting at 7PM last night when previews began.