Nicolas Cage’s latest movie “Longlegs” just opened to an insane $22.6 million its first weekend, beating out multiple $100 million movies.
What do Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum have in common? No, it’s not their extraordinary good looks. It’s that they were both in the $100 million movie “Fly Me To The Moon,” which disappeared under the success of Cage’s latest mind-bending bizarro-horror, “Longlegs.” The movie opened on July 12 after taking just $10 million to make, with a similar budget for marketing and distribution, according to Variety.
The plot mixes in some of the best horror tropes in history: a gifted FBI agent is drawn to hunt for elusive serial killer (Cage) “Longlegs.” Its a premise not-so dissimilar to the likes of “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Zodiac” and “Se7en,” Time magazine notes (warning, the article contains big spoilers).
Apparently Cage based some of his character’s creepiness on his late mother, Joy Vogelsang. “She did a lot of things to freak him out,” director Osgood Perkins told USA Today. “He harvested a lot of memory of his mom,” he added.
Cage echoed the sentiment to Extra, saying that he “heard her voice and the way she would move and suddenly I thought, ‘You know, I could put all that into this character. That was an inspiration I owe [to her].” So, it doesn’t sound like this was an insult particularly. “If I’m any good in the movie, I owe it to my mom,” Cage added.
US actor Nicolas Cage arrives for the screening of the film “The Surfer” at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 18, 2024. (Photo by Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP) (Photo by SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images)
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA – MAY 31: Nicolas Cage attends secret screening of NEON’s LONGLEGS co-presented by Beyond Fest at Aero Theatre on May 31, 2024 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for NEON)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JULY 08: (L-R) Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe attend the premiere of Neon’s “Longlegs” at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on July 08, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
It would appear that Americans are more than willing to spend money to go to the movies in the summer, and in this economy. They just won’t pay to see a Kevin Costner movie. (RELATED: Nicolas Cage’s Latest Trailer Will Make Your Brain Melt)
Costner’s opening weekend for “Horizon: An American Saga” was so tragic the movie went almost directly to streaming, while the second installment of the Western franchise was pulled from its August release date. Hopefully he’ll return to “Yellowstone” in support of his fans and fellow cast and crew instead of focusing on this ego project now. That would be lovely!
