Now that Jordan Peele’s NOPE has had its Hollywood premiere and is being met with raving initial reactions, the prognosis for its box office debut taking place this week is looking particularly bright.
Based on Peele’s previous box office triumphs with 2017’s Get Out and 2019’s Us, as well as the hype already building up around the director’s new effort, reports from Variety and Deadline are predicting NOPE will bank anywhere between $45 and $55 million across 3,700 theaters in North America during its debut. This means it would surpass Get Out‘s $33 million opening, but fall just short of Us‘ whopping $70 million premiere.
Depending on reviews, which are just now dropping, reality might exceed predictions, in the vein of what happened with Us, which premiered to almost double the ticket sales than had initially been projected. With NOPE being Peele’s most ambitious and expensive project to date — at a $68 million budget compared to Get Out‘s $4.5 million and Us‘ $20 million — and occupying a particularly tricky spot in his filmography as his third movie, its box office return will be especially important.
Although staying within the realm of horror to which Peele has accustomed audiences, NOPE might surprise as it dips into the sci-fi genre with its UFO/alien invasion tale. Starring the Oscar winning writer-director’s favorite actor, Daniel Kaluuya, as well as Peele universe debutantes Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, and Steven Yeun, NOPE tells the story of two ranch owners who contact two filmmakers to capture the unidentified floating object hovering over their land and affecting their animals.
When NOPE premieres on July 22 the world will know whether it is, in fact, Jordan Peele’s third box office hit.
