Jordan Peele’s horror-thriller “Us” is expected to generate around $35 million in its opening North American weekend on March 22-24, early tracking showed Thursday.
“Us,” which follows a family confronted by a group of doppelgängers, stars Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, and Elisabeth Moss. Nyong’o and Duke play a couple who are taking their children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex) to their beach house along the Northern California coastline. Nyong’o’s character is haunted by an unexplainable and unresolved trauma from her past.
In a trailer released on Christmas Day, four figures appeared at the foot of a driveway with the tagline “We are our own worst enemy.” “Us” is the first project under Peele’s first-look deal with Universal Pictures, which he signed with his Monkeypaw Productions last year after his “Get Out” grossed a massive $255 million worldwide, scored an Academy Award nomination for best picture, and won the best original screenplay Oscar for Peele.
Peele directed “Us” from his own script and produced alongside Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, and Monkeypaw’s Ian Cooper. The film is the company’s first solo production venture.
“Us” will open the 26th edition of the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 8. Universal had originally planned to open “Us” on March 15, then moved it back a week following the SXSW selection in order to build more buzz. After that date-change announcement in early January, several titles moved off March 22, including Sony’s World War II drama “Greyhound,” starring Tom Hanks, and Annapurna’s comedy-drama “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?,” starring Cate Blanchett.
Paramount was able to build buzz last year when “A Quiet Place” opened SXSW on March 9, 2018, and moved into wide release four weeks later with a $50 million opening weekend.