'Us', Jordan Peele's followup up to his 2017 hit 'Get Out' exceeded all expectations by grossing an estimated $70 million plus in its opening weekend.
Early projections varied from $40 to $60 million. The $70 million weekend was an outstanding launch for the film which had a budget of $20 million.
'Us’ now has the third highest grossing horror film weekend behind only "It" which opened with $123.4 million and "Halloween (2018)" which launched with 76.2 million.
'Us’ will pass the $100 mark and should have no problem reaching and $150 million mark. The questions are with the movie's polarizing ending does it gross more than the $176 million 'Get Out' made or does it pass $200 million domestically because of repeated viewings by those trying to decipher the ending?
'Us’ was by written, produced, and directed by Jordan Peele.
The movie stars Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, and Evan Alex .
NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 7, 2019 – Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller, and the supernatural, today announced the upcoming premiere of its first original documentary feature, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Based on the acclaimed book of the same name by Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman, Horror Noire takes a critical look at a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and embraced both black filmmakers and black audiences.
The film features in-depth interviews with noted directors, writers, and actors, including Ernest Dickerson (Bones), Rusty Cundieff (Tales from the Hood), Jordan Peele (Us), Tina Mabry (Mississippi Damned), Tony Todd (Candyman), Paula Jai Parker (Tales from the Hood), Tananarive Due (My Soul to Keep), and Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman. Horror Noire will premiere exclusively on Shudder on Thursday, February 7, after special screening events in New York and Los Angeles earlier in the month.
“After I saw Oscar winner Jordan Peele’s Get Out, I created a UCLA class around Black Horror called The Sunken Place,” said executive producer Tananarive Due. “The text I recommended was Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman’s Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to the Present. So I was so thrilled to help bring this story to life on the screen. Horror Noire is about the history of black horror films, but it’s also a testament to the power of representation and how horror is such a visceral way to fight racial trauma: our real pain and fear, but from a safer distance – while we get stronger.”
“The horror genre is daring, unflinching pedagogy. It is like a syllabus of our social, political, and racial world,” said executive producer Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman. “The horror film is fascinating if for no other reason than that it prides itself on snuggling up next to the taboo, while confounding our sense of good and evil, the monstrous and divine, and the sacred and profane. It is one of the most intrepid of entertainment forms in its scrutiny of our humanity and our foibles. It is my sincere hope that Horror Noire will spark fierce debate and trigger even more exacting, nuanced explorations into the power of horror.”
Beginning with the silent film era, Horror Noire explores the often overlooked and downplayed history of Black Americans in Hollywood: the emergence of black leading men in genre cinema in the late ‘60s with Night of the Living Dead and into the ‘70s with Blacula and films of the blaxploitation era; Candyman and the growing popularity of urban horror in the 1990s; up to the genre’s recent resurgence with movies like the Oscar-winning, critical and commercial hit Get Out.
“There are messages of humanity and survival that Black storytellers and performers have been expressing in horror since the genre’s beginning,” said Ashlee Blackwell, a producer and co-writer of Horror Noire as well as the founder and managing editor of Graveyard Shift Sisters, a website dedicated to the topic of Black women in horror. “It’s been an exciting journey to work with a team to bring this once hidden history to life and out of the shadows.”
Horror Noire is adapted from Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman’s landmark influential 2011 book, Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present, a comprehensive chronological survey of the genre. Both book and film provide a unique social history of blacks in America as seen through their changing images in horror films.
Horror Noire features interviews with filmmakers and scholars, showcasing a who’s who of black horror cinema, from those who survived the genre’s past trends to those shaping its future.
Ernest Dickerson Director, Bones, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
Jordan Peele Writer/ Director, Get Out, Us
Keith David Actor, The Thing
Kelly Jo Minter Actor, The People Under the Stairs
Ken Foree Actor, Dawn of the Dead
Ken Sagoes Actor, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Loretta Devine Actor, Urban Legend
Mark H. Harris Creator, BlackHorrorMovies.com
Meosha Bean Filmmaker
Miguel A. Nuñez Actor, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
Monica Suriyage Filmmaker
Paula Jai Parker Actor, Tales from the Hood
Rachel True Actor, The Craft
Richard Lawson Actor, Scream Blacula Scream
Robin R. Means Coleman, PhD Author/ Educator
Rusty Cundieff Co-Writer/ Director, Tales from the Hood
Tananarive Due Author/ Educator
Tina Mabry Writer/ Director, Mississippi Damned
Tony Todd Actor, Candyman
William Crain Director, Blacula
Horror Noire is directed by Xavier Burgin, executive produced by Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman, Tananarive Due, Fangoria Editor-in-Chief Phil Nobile Jr and Kelly Ryan of Stage 3 Productions, and is produced and co-written by Ashlee Blackwell and Danielle Burrows.
“Horror Noire is an important and timely documentary that explores an overlooked part of the horror genre that’s only just beginning to get the attention it deserves,” said Shudder’s general manager, Craig Engler. “We’re honored and thrilled to help bring this project to life and share it with the world.”
Ahead of its Shudder debut on February 7, Horror Noire will have its world premiere Friday, February 1, in collaboration with Beyond Fest and the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, CA, headlining two days of screenings with special guests in celebration of black horror. More information and tickets will be available soon at americancinemathequecalendar.com.
Then on Monday, February 4, Horror Noire will have its east coast premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, followed by a panel conversation featuring executive producer Tananarive Due, writer/producer Ashlee Blackwell, filmmaker R. Shanea Williams, and comics writer Greg Anderson Elysee. The film will screen on a double bill with Rusty Cundieff’s 1995 classic, Tales from the Hood. Tickets for this special event will be on sale Monday, January 7 at BAM.org.
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ABOUT SHUDDER
AMC Networks’ SHUDDER is a premium streaming video service, super-serving fans of all degrees with the best selection in genre entertainment, covering thrillers, suspense, and horror. SHUDDER’s expanding library of film, TV series, and originals is available in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, and Germany on most streaming devices for 4.99/month or 49.99/year. To experience SHUDDER commitment-free for 7 days, visit www.shudder.com.
Set in present day along the iconic Northern California coastline, Us, from Monkeypaw Productions, stars Oscar® winner Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide Wilson, a woman returning to her beachside childhood home with her husband, Gabe (Black Panther’s Winston Duke), and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex) for an idyllic summer getaway.
Haunted by an unexplainable and unresolved trauma from her past and compounded by a string of eerie coincidences, Adelaide feels her paranoia elevate to high-alert as she grows increasingly certain that something bad is going to befall her family.
After spending a tense beach day with their friends, the Tylers (Emmy winner Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon), Adelaide and her family return to their vacation home. When darkness falls, the Wilsons discover the silhouette of four figures holding hands as they stand in the driveway. Us pits an endearing American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves.
Are you a black nerd? Then you might want to check out the Blerd City Con.
What is that you ask?
Simply put it's a 3 day geek out for black people who like science fiction, horror, and fantasy.
“I want the audience to experience Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy by the talents of leading writers as well as filmmakers, coders and creators of the African Diaspora who are serving the community of black and Nerdy,” said founder Clairesa Clay.
The 3-day conference takes place July 13 - 15, 2018 celebrating the fantastic nerdiness in you! Through panels & workshops of Art, Science, Film, Comic Books, & Technology in Brooklyn, New York making you truly feel like a Blerd!
Blerd City is a conference dedicated to showcasing the multidimensional complexity of black nerdiness through all spectrums of creativity, invention, and innovation and this is its second year in action. You can expect panels, workshops, film screenings, Afrofuturism, special guests, and presentations. In addition, there will be a marketplace for gaming and comic books open to all ages.
The conference will take place at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York.
Jordan Peele is coming back with a new horror film! The Academy Award-winning filmmaker recently announced that his forthcoming project, Us, will be heading to theaters early next year.
Peele made the announcement on Twitter late Tuesday night (May 8). The film poster displays black and white silhouettes of two boys that appear to be African American. While the poster is fairly simple, it still carries a haunting effect.
There is little information regarding the film’s plot and story line, but there are several reports claiming the film is looking to include an all-star cast. Peele is reportedly eying Black Panther’s Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke, as well as The Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss, according to The Hollywood Reporter. If those contracts are signed, Nyong’o and Duke will reportedly portray one couple, while Moss will play one half of another couple.
Us will be Peele’s first feature film since his breakout blockbuster Get Out. Following its release in Feb. 2017, the racially-charged horror film quickly became a pop culture phenomenon and cleaned up at the awards shows. Peele also became the first black man to win an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.
The movie poster does not have a specific date, but Universal Pictures has reportedly has slated the picture for Mar. 15, 2019, THR reports. Check out the poster below, and stay tuned for more updates.
Now there's a supposed list of things black people don't do. You know like swimming, vote republican, or watch Fox News. Okay that last one may be true but the others are grand generalizations.
Another generalization I hear because I'm a writer of science fiction and horror is that black people don't like science fiction. I also hear that it's a waste of time marketing such books to them. I would like to state that is categorically false. Just as many African Americans are fans of science fiction as any other group. Yeah we don't show it or talk about it as much but that's because many want to avoid ridicule from our own at times.
Telling other black people you like science fiction is like saying that you are a republican. ( okay maybe not that bad ). All black sci-fi fans have been minding their own business watching a TV show or reading a book and had someone asking what weird sh*t are they reading / watching now? Now normally this comes from people who watch reality TV and think that sh*t is real.
To avoid that reaction many people just keep their love of science fiction it to themselves. It's get tiresome answering the question, "Why are you wasting that time on that made up stuff? Explaining to people that the other stuff on TV is made up too normally falls on deaf ears especially to anyone who thinks Basketball Wives is engaging television.
For the record just as many black people love Star Wars ( not anything featuring Jar Jar Binks though ), Star Trek, Battlestar Galatica, etc. Now you may not see as many of us going to conventions in weird outfits or anything like that but trust me we love the weird sh*t just as much as anyone else.
So there's that's another generalization laid to rest. Live long and prosper!
