‘Talk to Me’ Has Become A24’s Fifth Highest-Grossing Film at the Worldwide BO!!

While Barbie and Oppenheimer have been dominating the global box office over the past few weeks, another movie has been quietly landing punches in its own weight class. After almost exactly a month in release, the horror film Talk to Me has passed the $50 million mark at the global box office, cementing itself as one of the biggest movies in indie outfit A24’s history.

Released in late July to very positive reviews, Talk to Me has grossed $38.9 million domestically and another $11.2 million from international markets, for a running global total of $50 million. The horror film’s biggest foreign markets are Mexico ($3.6 million), the U.K. ($2.5 million), Australia ($1.9 million), Spain ($1.3 million) and Russia (just under $1 million). Talk to Me opened with a healthy $10 million in its debut weekend at the domestic box office, and fell by only 39% in its second weekend, adding over $6 million to its tally. This was highly unusual, considering how most horror films are notoriously front-loaded.

But Talk to Me’s solid performance has now made it A24’s fifth-biggest film of all time at the global box office, overtaking Uncut Gems by roughly $200,000. The list includes two Best Picture Oscar winners — Everything Everywhere All at Once ($111 million) and Moonlight ($64 million) — the horror hit Hereditary ($81 million), and Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age comedy drama Lady Bird ($80 million). A24 has steadily established itself as a major player in the indie space, utilizing a strong brand identity and slick marketing.

The Movie Was Successful Both Critically and Commercially

Directed by Australian YouTubers-turned-filmmakers Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, Talk to Me premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival last year. It cost only $4.5 million to produce, which means that the return on investment on it would be stellar. It was obviously strong enough for a sequel to be announced by A24 shortly after its debut. The follow-up film has been titled Talk 2 Me, and will also be directed by the Philippous.

Only five horror movies have performed better than Talk to Me at the domestic box office this year: Scream VI ($108 million), M3GAN ($95 million), Insidious: The Red Door ($81 million), Evil Dead Rise ($67 million) and The Boogeyman ($43 million). Only one of these films has zero IP ties, further highlighting what a remarkable achievement this has been for a wholly original movie like Talk to Me. The film stars Sophie Wilde, Joe Bird, Alexandra Jensen, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, Marcus Johnson, Alexandria Steffensen, Zoe Terakes, Chris Alosio, and Ari McCarthy.