If the rebooting of the House Party franchise was intended to be a quick money grab, it may have fulfilled that feat for several reasons. While the official production budget has not been released, the Springhill Entertainment and Warner Bros./New Line Cinema film clearly indicated a budget-conscience production, such as the minimal use of locations and main cast choices.
It’s the same formula that was implemented in the original House Party films, and follows the age-old practice of Hollywood expecting high quality films from Black creators within the confines of meager production funding. However, pressure makes diamonds, which results in the Ice Cubes, Tyler Perrys, Ava DuVernays, and Issa Raes of the industry who have mastered the art of being resourceful while telling interesting and relatable stories.
Back to House Party, the film released over the 4-day weekend of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday pulled a $4.6M box office as it screened in 1,400 theaters across the nation. The Friday the 13th opening grossed $1.41M, followed by $1.46M on Saturday, and $1.12M on Sunday. Box office declined by 43.9% on Monday, only drawing $629k for an average of $449 per theater, not quite the expectation if the film was hoping to coincide with MLK Day for a higher percentage of Black viewers.
House Party came in sixth place, behind the Gerard Butler and Mike Colter action flick, Plane, as the Lionsgate film enjoyed a $10.3M opening weekend. To be fair, Plane opened in more theaters than House Party at 3,023, giving the Di Bonaventure Pictures production a better chance of amassing a bigger box office.
The other top box office spots were filled by previously released films, with Avatar: The Way of Water taking the No. 1 spot at $32.8M in its 5th week. M3GAN earned $18.3M in its 2nd week, followed by Puss in Boots ($14.5M) and A Man Called Otto ($12.8M).
In the landscape of films with Black actors, it’s notable that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is still making a splash with a $2.5M gain in its 10th weekend, totaling a whopping $449.4M since opening. The TriStar Pictures biopic, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, gained $1.2M in its 4th week out, and has made a total box office of $21.9M to date. TriStar also has its hands in The Woman King, which is still pulling thousands, adding to its $67.3M total.
Festival favorite, Saint Omer, another film that had a very modest production budget and limited release, is doing well in its first week. The Alice Diop directed film about an embattled woman’s court trial nabbed $69k in its opening weekend with only 245 theaters in the U.S. Reception of Saint Omer is faring well internationally, as it surges at $544k. It is certain that Diop, a French documentary filmmaker, has promise in the world of feature film telling the stories of women and people of color.
If there’s anything to learn from the box office performance of House Party, it is that the audience in which it targets has boundaries and standards. For filmmakers and the production and distribution institutions that support them, it’s a call of action to challenge the status quo and rethink the safer bets of remakes and reboots of cult-classics.
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