Is Jordan Peele cooking up another No. 1 box office stunner? We sure hope so. Since Peele’s free fall into feature film directing in 2017, the “Cryptic King” has been consistently serving head-scratching thrillers that will surely go down in history as the genesis of Peele’s genius.
Peele’s Off To A Good Start
Never the one to leave fans waiting too long, the former Key and Peele actor and executive producer has delivered the untouchable classic Get Out, a twisted story about a Black man meeting the off-putting parents of his White girlfriend, starring the phenomenally casted Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams. The film, shot on an alleged $4.5M production budget, opened to $33.4M the weekend of Feb. 24, 2017. It went on to make $176.2M in the domestic market and $79.5M internationally.
Not bad for a politically rebellious film written and directed by one-half of the duo responsible for Keanu, a light-hearted comedy about two cousins teaming up to rescue a kingpin’s cat – the $15M budget Warner Bros. pic barely made a return as it opened to $9.5M its first weekend and earned $11.1M more throughout its screen cycle.
On To The Next One
The aftermath of Get Out created an overwhelming sense of anticipation for Peele’s next move. Two years later, Peele had audiences on edge with the haunting psychological thriller Us, led by another brilliant bill of actors, including Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Shahadi Wright, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
Despite Us having a more explosive opening weekend at $71.1M (more than twice as much as Get Out), the Universal pic performed on code with its predecessor. Us nabbed $175.1M domestically and $80.9M internationally, making a worldwide box office of $256.1M. All of this from a $20M budget! How Sway?
The buzz surrounding Peele only increased with the release of Us. Several moviegoers went on social media to question the cryptic messaging within the two Peele films — and even more questioned Peele’s motive. Audiences couldn’t figure out if Peele was doing a service for the people by warning them in these parable-laden films, or simply pulling their legs in the spirit of his eccentric Comedy Central persona.
Does ‘Candyman’ Count?
In the space between his next directorial contribution, Peele played in TV land as a writer of The Twilight Zone and The Last O.G., and even managed to slip in a reboot of the Candyman franchise in 2021. Directing was left to Top Boy director Nia DaCosta, while Peele contributed to writing the screenplay for the nostalgic horror.
Unfortunately, the film, cited as “not as scary as the original,” released to mediocre rankings — 72% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.9/10 on IMDb — and a $22M opening, way below Peele’s standard. A worldwide cume of $77.4M showed a slight dampening of enthusiasm for Peele’s films, as the latter ones struggled to capture the magic of Get Out.
Are You Not Entertained?
That is, until Nope arrived. Peele returned to the silver-screen the sole writer and director of the 2022 UFO-themed sci-fi. He even reunited with Kaluuya, strumming the heartbeats of diehard Get Out fans thirsty for Peele’s quirky take on social relations.
Those fans supported the peculiar film, also starring fan-favorite Keke Palmer, to the tune of a $44.4M opening weekend. Nope crossed the $100M box office line in its third week of release. The domestic box office landed at $123.3M and international earned $47.9M, for a total of $171.2M worldwide. A box office success, in spite of not meeting the gold standards of Get Out and Us.
The Cryptic King’s 2024 Comeback
Even though the craziness surrounding Peele’s appeal has gently settled with his recent releases, we can’t help but anticipate his next film. It’s like an addiction, and honestly, who can do it quite like the Cryptic King? It looks like Peele fans are in luck because not only is he working on another top-secret Monkeypaw Production, due in theaters by Sept. 27, 2024, but he also has a film slated with Universal for December 25, 2024 that he will be directing. You better work!
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If Peele solely writes and directs these films, the $100M-plus filmmaker has the opportunity to break records with his new projects and we can’t wait to see what he has cooking in that resplendent mind of his. Will you be reserving advance tickets for Peele’s upcoming films?
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