Adam Wingard swapped Godzilla vs. Kong for a 15 million dollar horror, and it opened to 2.33 million

If you thought a smaller budget might guarantee higher returns for Adam Wingard, think again. His new action-horror outing, Onslaught, just got battered at the box office, and frankly, it’s not hard to see why when you look at the numbers—and the audience response.

Onslaught cost $15 million to make, but pulled in just $2.33 million across its four-day debut weekend.

Wingard’s Indie Gambit

You might know Wingard best from the likes of Godzilla vs. Kong, but this time he’s ditched the kaiju and city-flattening CGI for something more contained. He’s roped in his long-time writer mate, Simon Barrett (they previously teamed up for You’re Next and The Guest), and positioned Onslaught as a sort of spiritual follow-up. Wingard even announced, in true filmmaker fashion, that you could 'technically call this a sequel'—it supposedly shares a universe with those earlier efforts. Bit of an in-joke for the diehards, that.

Instead of monsters, what we’ve got here is Adria Arjona trudging through a trailer park, trying to protect her daughter—and basically anyone she cares about—after a batch of genetically engineered super-soldiers break out from some dodgy military operation. Joining her are Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Michael Biehn, Reginald VelJohnson, Eric Wareheim, Drew Starkey, and even Alex 'Poatan' Pereira—a cast that’s frankly stacked for a film of this size.

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Reception: Tepid at Best

Onslaught hit US cinemas on 4 September, landing in just shy of 2,000 theatres, but even with the Labor Day boost, it could only scrounge up $1.88 million by the Sunday, crawling to $2.33 million after the holiday. None of these figures are particularly rosy when offset against that $15 million price tag—it was always going to be a tough road.

And it’s not just the money: viewers haven’t exactly embraced it either. A CinemaScore of C suggests folks leaving the theatre had, at best, a lukewarm time. Over on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s sitting at 56%—not entirely trashed, but certainly not celebrated. IMDB users have it at 6.3, a bit more forgiving, but hardly anything to shout about.

• Budget: $15 million
• Four-day opening: $2.33 million
• CinemaScore: C
• Rotten Tomatoes: 56%
• IMDB: 6.3
• Stars: Adria Arjona, Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Michael Biehn, Reginald VelJohnson, Eric Wareheim, Drew Starkey, Alex 'Poatan' Pereira
• Director: Adam Wingard
• Writers: Adam Wingard, Simon Barrett

The whole thing is meant to be a pulpy, B-movie thrill ride—think grindhouse with a science experiment gone wrong—but based on the numbers and that 'C' from CinemaScore, audiences just weren’t having it. Even a fun genre mashup sometimes fails to catch on, especially without the mega-budget spectacle or a bit of critical buzz behind it.

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