Jeepers Creepers
Release Date:
August 31, 2001
In one of two fall teen-terror road trips gone awry (see also Joy Ride), a brother (Justin Long), and sister (Gina Philips) awaken an evil, indestructible, homicidal entity they encounter in the basement of an old church (Pat Robertson?), which proceeds to pursue them à la Jason Vorhees/Michael Myers/Freddy Krueger on their way home. Yawn. At least I Know What You Did Last Summer had a hook (beyond Jennifer Love Hewitt's breasts). While it's difficult to fault studios for cranking out these cookie-cutter teen slasher flicks - from a financial standpoint. they're cheap to make with no-name casts - in hopes of stumbling upon the next Scream franchise opportunity, the fact that these films typically can generate at least $5 - $10 million to open, and $25 million or more total gross, before video sales and rentals, just reinforces the fact that bored teens will always support this drek, sometimes in large numbers, which is perhaps the greatest un-killable evil of all.
An R rating ensures the requisite gratuitous gore and boobie shots that the targeted audience needs to sate their last-weekend-of-August, goin'-back-to-school cravings. (Walid Habboub/BOP)
Box Office Autopsy
Jeepers Creepers got out of the gate with an unexpected start, but couldn't follow up the opening weekend in the weeks that came after.
The MGM horror flick grossed $13.1 million over its opening 3-day weekend against a cost of only $10 million, and $15.8 million over the four day Labour Day Weekend. MGM knew they were on to something, and took a chance on Jeepers, sending it out to 2,944 venues over its opening frame. The teen flick had an ad campaign that worked - the flick had a first weekend venue average of $4,452 - and was the number one film at the box office over the last summer weekend in 2001. All this despite the fact that the film opened on one of the toughest dates to release a movie, and that it was competing against The Others, the Nicole Kidman horror film that was still performing admirably in its third weekend of release.
MGM was able to use a handful of good reviews that included a quote from Clive Barker to promote the movie. They saturated the public with TV and print ads, and were able to build an impressive buzz for the film. After opening weekend though, the legs came off Jeepers Creepers. The film dropped 53% in its second weekend, but still managed an impressive (at least for the genre and the target demographic) 2.89 overall multiplier. The film took in $37.9 million at the box office, and another $45.39 million in video revenue. With that kind of cost-to-profit ratio, its no wonder MGM spawned a sequel.
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