Terrifier 3being one of the biggest hits of 2024 may come as a surprise to some as it is not a long-established franchise or a movie with a budget in the hundreds of millions. Instead, it is a smaller budget production that is part of a franchise that had a rocky start.Terrifier 3was a massive success at the box office, and its critical reception was also positive with a 77% critic score and 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Terrifierstarted as a small-budget movie that was known more for its deaths and iconic killer, Art the Clown than it is for its plot. Over the years, the franchise has grown and garnered a dedicated fan base and put other franchises to shame with the amount of money it earned compared to its more than reasonable budget.Terrifier 3’scliffhanger endingteases a fourth film, which initially seems like it will be the last. However, there’s a chance the franchise could continue onward, especially when looking atTerrifier 3’s box office performance.
Terrifier 4 Was Originally Envisioned As The Final Movie In The Franchise
Before The Success Of Terrifier 3, Damien Leone Could Picture A Four Movie Franchise
After its critical and financial success, it’s no surprise a fourthTerrifierfilm is in the works. Plus,TerrifierdirectorDamien Leone has been open about how he could see this series wrapping up with this fourth film (viaGames Radar). However,Terrifiermay end up continuing after a fourth installment because the profits are too tempting for those involved.
Why Terrifier 2’s Bedroom Scene Is So Controversial
The controversial scene has made many viewers feel queasy and even faint. It is certainly the most gruesome Art the Clown moment from Terrifier 2.
It would be a shame for Terrifier to overstay its welcome Leone is even aware of this threat, and he has expressed to SFX magazine (via Games Radar) concerns about theTerrifierfranchiseoverstaying its welcome.
My big fear is of going on too long and wearing out my welcome… Because that does happen to all of my favorites. Almost always it happens to the slasher franchises where they make 10 of them. I want to have a solid franchise, whether it be a trilogy – or maybe a quadrilogy.
The slasher genre is no stranger to drawing out its franchises. For instance,Halloweenhas five movie timelines, and most of those films have not captured what made the original movie stand out.Halloweenis not alone in this, as there are 12Friday the 13thmovies, nineTexas Chainsaw Massacremovies, and nineNightmare on Elm Streetmovies. EvenScreamis still going on, withScream 7set to begin filming in December 2024.
These are beloved franchises, and it’s understandable to want to revisit them, butwhen these franchises go on longer than anticipated, the plot gets lost.Halloweenhas so many timelines because all of these films cannot work together in one cohesive plot.Friday the 13thevolves from a vengeful mom at a summer camp to an almost immortal slasher on a futuristic space station by the tenth film.
Terrifier 3’sbox office could make it tempting to draw this franchise out longer than expected.
The risk of losing the plot is bigger forTerrifierif it goes past four films because there is already an end to the story. In the same interview with SFX magazine,Leone confirmshe has the entire story forTerrifierfigured out, and that’s been the case since the second film. However, knowing how it will play out versus how long it will take to play out are different things, andTerrifier 3’sbox office could make it tempting to draw this franchise out longer than expected.
Terrifier 3’s Box Office Could Tempt The Franchise To Expand
Terrifier 3 Made Bank At The Box Office With a Reasonable Budget
WhileTerrifier 3’ssuccess shows Hollywood how it can solve its movie problemof making blockbuster films for too much money,Terrifiercould repeat another franchise problem.Leone is aware of the dangers of a franchise overstaying its welcome, but there is always the chance thatTerrifierwill do just this in an attempt to make as much money out of the franchise as possible. That’s been the case for the aforementioned other slasher franchises, and this could be the case forTerrifier, especially after its remarkable box office success withTerrifier 3.
Terrifier 3 Screening Makes Audience Members Vomit & Walkout, Director Responds: “We’ve Done Our Job”
The extreme and gory slasher sequel Terrifier 3 spurs multiple walkouts and makes an audience member vomit during an early UK screening.
Terrifier 3has a production budget of $2 million, andTerrifier 3’sbox office earned 14 times its budget by the end of week one, earning $18.9 million.Its success would continue to grow, putting it on2024’s highest-grossing movies listwith a final domestic box office of $53 million in North America.
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Additionally,Terrifierhas proven time and again that it is in demand, especially withTerrifier 3.From merchandise popping up in mainstream stores, to the sequel film being a crowdfunded movie on Indiegogo, to box office numbers that get better with each new film, theTerrifiermovies are a hot commodity. Being such an in-demand series that can make a sizable profit at the box office,it would be understandable for the franchise to power through beyond the confirmed fourth film.
Extending the Terrifier Franchise Beyond Terrifier 4 Would Hurt The Series
As Leone mentioned, he is well aware of the risks of a franchise overstaying its welcome. Furthermore, somefranchises become too big for their own good.Terrifiereasily runs that risk, especially as its lore gets more and more complicatedwith each film.
Plus, one of the biggest appeals of the film is how it pushes boundaries. While the franchise continuing could mean more of that,there is a chance that audiences will just get more of the same in hopes of recapturing that magic. Furthermore, there’s the risk that most of Leone’s time will be focused on the same franchise as opposed to exploring new ventures – ventures that could test his creativity in different ways.
What could hurt the series even more is the fact that Leone does have a plan for how the story will play out.Therefore, dragging the series out beyond a fourth film could alter this initial game plan. It could also mean padding out the intended story to a point that makes the franchise feel like a slog to the end, hypothetically.
What Damien Leone Has Said About Terrifier 4 & The Franchise Ending
Damien Leone Knows Terrifier Is Both Art And Sienna’s Story
While Leone’s plan was for a four-film franchise, he also revealed toVarietythat there is a chance he has another twoTerrifierfilms left in him, meaning a fifth film is not entirely off the table. Leone also reminded fans that nothing is certain as things are still developing. Despite this, the director does have an end goal in sight. In that same Variety article, Leone expressed how the end to Art the Clown’s saga will be some sort of epic showdown.
Terrifier 4 Ending The Franchise’s Holiday Setting Trend Will Debunk A Popular Theory
A lot is still unknown about the villainous Art the Clown, but Terrifier 4’s setting could potentially debunk a major theory related to the character.
This end goal also has a lot to do with theTerrifierfranchise’s final girl, Sienna.As revealed toCollider, she is Leone’s favorite character, and this franchise is as much as hers as it is Art the Clown’s. He even knew duringTerrifier 2that Sienna would be key to the end of this saga.
When I wrote part two, as I was writing it, I knew where I was going to end the entire saga between Art and Sienna. So I know where it ends. It’s just a matter of how many movies is it going to take me to get there.
While he knows what the end for theTerrifierfranchise looks like, that does not mean the director knows how many movies it will take to get to that ending. As revealed to Collider by Leone, the creative process leads to constant changes and nothing is set in stone. When a franchise continues to make as much money asTerrifier 3has, it’s even more likely for changes to be made to prolong the franchise as much as possible. At the moment, there is just a fourth film confirmed, but that could always change.
Terrifier 4
Cast
Terrifier 4 is the final installment in the Terrifier horror franchise. Director and writer Damien Leone has confirmed his plans to make the film, though it has yet to be officially announced.
