Happy Death Day made 190 million dollars on a 14 million spend, and Universal still will not pay for the third one
Jessica Rothe’s dropped the sort of Happy Death Day 3 update horror fans have been craving, speaking candidly at the 2026 International Film Festival (TIFF).
Here we go again—yes, Happy Death Day 3 is back in the rumour mill, and this time with something a bit meatier than the usual 'maybe, someday, if we're lucky' sort of chatter. Jessica Rothe, the star of Universal's darkly comic slasher series, let slip an actual update on the future of the franchise during a chat at TIFF 2026. Not your everyday PR fluff either—she actually laid out that there's already a story for the third film, and frankly, it sounds like she and director Christopher Landon aren't just spitballing.
Jessica Rothe told journalists at the Toronto International Film Festival: 'Chris Landon and I have actually broken the whole story, which was really fun. We went to an undisclosed location—a Le Pain Quotidien in between our houses [laughs]—sat there for hours, and broke the third movie.'
The State of the Franchise
Now, before anyone gets too excited, there is a catch—and it's a big one. Despite fan enthusiasm and the fact that Rothe and Landon have the bones of the next storyline sorted (complete with croissants, I imagine), the studios—Universal and Blumhouse—haven't officially given the go-ahead. The holdup is predictably about money, or rather the lack of it from the studio side.
Rothe admitted they're basically sitting tight, waiting for the green light (and a bit of budget) to actually make it happen. Holding pattern, but not for lack of trying.
Where We've Been So Far
Bit of context for anyone who's lost track—Happy Death Day kicked off in 2017, giving us Rothe as Tree Gelbman, the sharp-tongued college student trapped in a killer Groundhog Day. Every time she's murdered—on her birthday, no less—she wakes up doomed to live it all over again. It's a neat blend of slasher and sci-fi, and it found its audience fast. That first film only cost about $4.8 million to produce, but launched with $26 million at the US box office and eventually raked in $125.5 million worldwide.
Sequel-wise, Happy Death Day 2U landed in 2019, was pricier at $9 million to make, but doubled down on the science-fiction angle with time travel and parallel universes, managing a global gross of $64.6 million. Add up the maths: both films together were made for less than $14 million and earned the studios roughly $190 million globally, which is the kind of money that usually guarantees more sequels. Hence, a lot of people wondering why part three isn't already shooting.
The first two films pulled in a combined worldwide box office of around $190 million for under $14 million in production costs.
But for now, it's a bit of a waiting game. The story exists, Rothe and Landon are clearly keen, but Universal and Blumhouse need to open the chequebook—and until they do, fans are stuck repeating the cycle, hoping the third loop finally arrives.